Smallpox In The 1800's

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Pages: 4

During the 1700's and 1800's, smallpox was considered to be a deadly disease. This disease killed millions of people. Smallpox infected people from all social classes. If there was no vaccine created for this disease, there would an immense amount of people dying. Smallpox is caused by the variola virus. People can get infected by the variola virus through inhalation. It can be transmitted from one person to another within a distance of six feet. People can also get infected when they come into contact with the infected person's body fluids or contaminated objects. When infected with smallpox, the host would experience symptoms such as fever, discomfort, headache, severe fatigue, and vomiting. Within a few days after the host receives the symptoms, flat red spots would appear and soon change into blisters. Before Edward Jenner, a pioneer of vaccination and the father of immunology, medical practices of defense against smallpox were developed throughout China and India. By the 17th century, Turkey and Greece discovered that when pustulates of smallpox were …show more content…
After this time, it became known to him that dairymaids did not have smallpox. He was impressed to find out that a person who had cowpox did not get infected with smallpox. Jenner spent some thought on this and concluded that cowpox could not only prevent people from contracting smallpox, but could also be transmitted to other people as a source of protection from the deadly disease. After discovering this, Jenner decided to test his theory. On May 1796, he took a fresh cowpox pustulate from Sarah Nelmes, a young dairymaid, and inoculated James Phipps, an eight-year-old boy who was free from smallpox. Phipps became slightly I'll for a few weeks, but he eventually got better. Jenner then inoculated Phipps again, this time with the smallpox pustulate. After some time, no smallpox disease developed in James