Okla-homey
5/14/2008, 06:44 AM
May 14, 1796: Jenner tests smallpox vaccine
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9153/jjjjjennerqa0.jpg
212 years ago today, Edward Jenner, an English country doctor from Gloucestershire, administers the world's first vaccination as a preventive treatment for smallpox, a disease that had killed millions of people over the centuries. The term "smallpox" was first used in Europe in the 15th century to distinguish variola from the "great pox" (syphilis). Smallpox was a serious disease which had an overall mortality rate of 30–35%.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2503/jjjjjsmallpoxnj6.jpg
20th century smallpox victim. Those sores are pus-filled blisters.
While still a medical student, Jenner noticed that milkmaids who had contracted a disease called cowpox, which caused blistering on cow's udders, did not catch smallpox. Unlike smallpox, which caused severe skin eruptions and dangerous fevers in humans, cowpox led to few ill symptoms in these women.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7518/jjjjsmallpxsa4.jpg
Trust me kid.
On May 14, 1796, Jenner took fluid from a cowpox blister and scratched it into the skin of James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy. A single blister rose up on the spot, but James soon recovered. On July 1, Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with smallpox matter, and no disease developed. The vaccine was a success.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5893/jjjjim1148elss3.jpg
These lancets were owned and used by Edward Jenner, the Gloucestershire doctor who introduced vaccination to the world.
Doctors all over Europe soon adopted Jenner's innovative technique, leading to a drastic decline in new sufferers of the devastating disease.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8098/jjjjs3201002ibq4.jpg
Just as now, some superstitious folks claimed vaccination was flirting with disaster because the risks outweighed the benefits. Balderdash of course, but there you have it. This 18th century cartoon depicts those vaccinated under Jenner's procedure developing bovine characteristics as a result of being injected with cow pox pus.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, scientists following Jenner's model developed new vaccines to fight numerous deadly diseases, including polio, whooping cough, measles, tetanus, yellow fever, typhus, and hepatitis B, and many others.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3943/jjjjicevvbs3.jpg
Jenner's paper.
For about eighty years, most everyone in the developed world recieved the smallpox vaccination in childhood. Just like young James Phipps way back in 1796, the vaccination patient developed a blister at the site that eventually healed and left a scar. Mine's on my upper left arm.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3838/jjjjsmallpoxvaxac3.jpg
Mommy noooooooooo!!!!!! Boy getting his smallpox shot.
More sophisticated smallpox vaccines were also developed and by 1970 international vaccination programs, such as those undertaken by the World Health Organization, had eliminated smallpox worldwide. To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated from nature. Thus, today's kids are no longer vaccinated against smallpox.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9153/jjjjjennerqa0.jpg
212 years ago today, Edward Jenner, an English country doctor from Gloucestershire, administers the world's first vaccination as a preventive treatment for smallpox, a disease that had killed millions of people over the centuries. The term "smallpox" was first used in Europe in the 15th century to distinguish variola from the "great pox" (syphilis). Smallpox was a serious disease which had an overall mortality rate of 30–35%.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2503/jjjjjsmallpoxnj6.jpg
20th century smallpox victim. Those sores are pus-filled blisters.
While still a medical student, Jenner noticed that milkmaids who had contracted a disease called cowpox, which caused blistering on cow's udders, did not catch smallpox. Unlike smallpox, which caused severe skin eruptions and dangerous fevers in humans, cowpox led to few ill symptoms in these women.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7518/jjjjsmallpxsa4.jpg
Trust me kid.
On May 14, 1796, Jenner took fluid from a cowpox blister and scratched it into the skin of James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy. A single blister rose up on the spot, but James soon recovered. On July 1, Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with smallpox matter, and no disease developed. The vaccine was a success.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/5893/jjjjim1148elss3.jpg
These lancets were owned and used by Edward Jenner, the Gloucestershire doctor who introduced vaccination to the world.
Doctors all over Europe soon adopted Jenner's innovative technique, leading to a drastic decline in new sufferers of the devastating disease.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8098/jjjjs3201002ibq4.jpg
Just as now, some superstitious folks claimed vaccination was flirting with disaster because the risks outweighed the benefits. Balderdash of course, but there you have it. This 18th century cartoon depicts those vaccinated under Jenner's procedure developing bovine characteristics as a result of being injected with cow pox pus.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, scientists following Jenner's model developed new vaccines to fight numerous deadly diseases, including polio, whooping cough, measles, tetanus, yellow fever, typhus, and hepatitis B, and many others.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3943/jjjjicevvbs3.jpg
Jenner's paper.
For about eighty years, most everyone in the developed world recieved the smallpox vaccination in childhood. Just like young James Phipps way back in 1796, the vaccination patient developed a blister at the site that eventually healed and left a scar. Mine's on my upper left arm.
http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3838/jjjjsmallpoxvaxac3.jpg
Mommy noooooooooo!!!!!! Boy getting his smallpox shot.
More sophisticated smallpox vaccines were also developed and by 1970 international vaccination programs, such as those undertaken by the World Health Organization, had eliminated smallpox worldwide. To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated from nature. Thus, today's kids are no longer vaccinated against smallpox.