Medical Discovery
Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination
Our task for these week is medical discovery,we decide to choose Edward Jenner as medical discovery of smallpox.
Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2005 Jan; 18(1): 21–25.
PMCID: PMC1200696
Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination
This article has been cited by other articles in PMC.
In science credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs.—Francis Galton
For
many centuries, smallpox devastated mankind. In modern times we do not
have to worry about it thanks to the remarkable work of Edward Jenner
and later developments from his endeavors. With the rapid pace of
vaccine development in recent decades, the historic origins of
immunization are often forgotten. Unfortunately, since the attack on the
World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the threat of biological
warfare and bioterrorism has reemerged. Smallpox has been identified as a
possible agent of bioterrorism (1). It seems prudent to review the history of a disease known to few people in the 21st century.
Edward Jenner (Figure (Figure11) is well known around the world for his innovative contribution to immunization and the ultimate eradication of smallpox (2).
Jenner's work is widely regarded as the foundation of
immunology—despite the fact that he was neither the first to suggest
that infection with cowpox conferred specific immunity to smallpox nor
the first to attempt cowpox inoculation for this purpose.
Edward Jenner (1749–1823). Photo courtesy of the National Library of Medicine.
SMALLPOX: THE ORIGIN OF A DISEASE
The origin of smallpox as a natural disease is lost in prehistory. It is believed to have appeared around 10,000 BC, at the time of the first agricultural settlements in northeastern Africa .
It seems plausible that it spread from there to India by means of
ancient Egyptian merchants. The earliest evidence of skin lesions
resembling those of smallpox is found on faces of mummies from the time
of the 18th and 20th Egyptian Dynasties (1570–1085 BC). The mummified head of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V (died 1156 BC) bears evidence of the disease . At the same time, smallpox has been reported in ancient Asian cultures: smallpox was described as early as 1122 BC in China and is mentioned in ancient Sanskrit texts of India.
Smallpox
was introduced to Europe sometime between the fifth and seventh
centuries and was frequently epidemic during the Middle Ages. The
disease greatly affected the development of Western civilization. The
first stages of the decline of the Roman Empire (AD 108) coincided with a large-scale epidemic: the plague of Antonine, which accounted for the deaths of almost 7 million people . The Arab expansion, the Crusades, and the discovery of the West Indies all contributed to the spread of the disease.
Unknown
in the New World, smallpox was introduced by the Spanish and Portuguese
conquistadors. The disease decimated the local population and was
instrumental in the fall of the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas.
Similarly, on the eastern coast of North America, the disease was
introduced by the early settlers and led to a decline in the native
population. The devastating effects of smallpox also gave rise to one of
the first examples of biological warfare.
During the French-Indian War (1754–1767), Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the
commander of the British forces in North America, suggested the
deliberate use of smallpox to diminish the American Indian population
hostile to the British. Another factor contributing to smallpox in the
Americas was the slave trade because many slaves came from regions in
Africa where smallpox was endemic.
Smallpox affected all
levels of society. In the 18th century in Europe, 400,000 people died
annually of smallpox, and one third of the survivors went blind .
The symptoms of smallpox, or the “speckled monster” as it was known in
18th-century England, appeared suddenly and the sequelae were
devastating. The case-fatality rate varied from 20% to 60% and left most
survivors with disfiguring scars. The case-fatality rate in infants was
even higher, approaching 80% in London and 98% in Berlin during the
late 1800s.
The word variola was commonly used for smallpox and had been introduced by Bishop Marius of Avenches (near Lausanne, Switzerland) in AD 570. It is derived from the Latin word varius, meaning “stained,” or from varus, meaning “mark on the skin.” The term small pockes (pocke
meaning sac) was first used in England at the end of the 15th century
to distinguish the disease from syphilis, which was then known as the
great pockes.
source:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1200696/
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