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TERRY DOES SCIENCE!
Smallpox and Vaccination
Back in the 1700's the very mention of the word, SMALLPOX created hysteria. It was a dreaded disease and if you were unlucky enough to pick it up, there was a very good chance that you would die from it. If not, you were left badly disfigured, with its ugly poc mark scars.
Smallpox is one of the greatest scourges in human history. It's believed that over 500 million people have died from it. In fact, more people have died from smallpox than the total number who died in all World Wars!
It's caused by a virus, and in general, viral infections are more difficult to treat than either bacterial or fungal infections. Antibiotics, for instance, have no effect on viruses.
As early as the 6th Century, the Chinese and Indians tried various methods to combat smallpox, but with little or no success. Later still, the Turks experimented by inoculating children with smallpox matter in the hope that they may become immune to it, but the breakthrough, didn't come until 1796.
In that year an English doctor called Edward Jenner, carried out what can only now be described as a very risky experiment. In fact, if it had gone wrong, he would almost certainly have been burnt at the stake.
Jenner had a country practice in Gloustershire, England. Many of his clients came to him suffering from cowpox, particularly milkmaids. He believed that there was a connection between cowpox and smallpox. Cowpox itself is non-life threatening. Those milkmaids who developed cowpox, soon recovered. However, those who developed smallpox weren't so lucky.
What Jenner noticed was that those milkmaids who picked up cowpox and recovered NEVER developed the more dangerous smallpox. They were somehow immune to it.
He decided to try out his experiment.
A young girl called Sarah Nelmes, a patient of his, had cowpox. Jenner removed some of the fluid from one of her cowpox blisters and infected an 8 year old boy, called James Phipps with it. Sure enough, shortly after, young James developed cowpox, but as expected, within a few weeks he made a full recovery.
Six weeks later, Jenner then infected young James with Smallpox. This was extremely risky. He could easily have died. However, Jenner believed, that by having already had cowpox, it somehow conferred protection on him. Sure enough, the boy remained healthy and Jenner had proved his theory.
Jenner then repeated his experiment with a number of other patients and eventually published his results.
The process involved became known as vaccination from the Latin word vacca meaning cow. In fact, the horns of Sarah Nelmes cow, Blossom are still in the Jenner Museum.
Jenner's vaccination changed medical history. He decided not to patent his discovery. This meant that made no money from it, but it also meant that the cure could be accessed by the poor.
Because of widespread vaccinations there was a marked decrease in the disease. So successful was Jenner's discovery, that in 1840, the Government of the day banned any other treatment for smallpox other than Jenner's.
In 1967 the World Health Organisation launched a plan to totally eradicate smallpox throughout the World and by the late 1970's, this was achieved. Smallpox is the first and so far the only infection to be completely eradicated worldwide.
A vaccine works by helping the body prepare to fight an illness. It gives the body a preview of the invader, so that the body can learn to defend itself in advance. If the body is invaded by that particular germ in the future, then the body's own immune system is ready.
The vaccine itself is a small amount of weakened or inactive microbe. When this is introduced into the body, it stimulates your immune system to produce antibodies. You're then said to be immune to the disease.
Today, vaccinations are common. We receive the MMR vaccine, the flu vaccine and many more. Strictly speaking though, the term vaccination is used to describe the injection of smallpox vaccine. The correct term is immunisation.
However, not all infections are as easily dealt with as smallpox. The influenza or flu virus is a good example. For some reason the flu virus mutates regularly so that the vaccine that's used against this year's flu will have no effect on next year's flu. Because of this, you need to be vaccinated every year to be protected.
Every so often a more virulent form of the flu arises. The most famous and lethal outbreak occurred in the winter of 1918, just after the end of the First World War. Within 6 months, this flu, sometimes called the Spanish flu, had killed about 20 million people, more than died in the War itself, and this pandemic has been described as the greatest medical holocaust in history.
Even worse than these are those infections for which no vaccines have been developed, and to date, no vaccine has been developed against AIDS.
AIDS is a fatal disease caused by a virus called HIV. The virus, which is transmitted from one person to another through bodily fluids like blood or semen, attacks the body's own defence system, leaving it open to secondary infections. It's hoped, but not definite, that a vaccine can be produced in the next couple of years.
If you're now thinking about getting the flu vaccine, this is the time of year to do so and while you're sitting in the surgery waiting to see the doctor, just cast a thought back to Edward Jenner. It was his discovery that has led to a greater understanding of our immune system and the various vaccination programmes against such diseases as measles, mumps, polio and tuberculosis that have improved the health of millions, so that we no longer need to fear these killer diseases.
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