Edward Jenner

• Smallpox killed about 30 percent of those who caught it
• Those who survived smallpox were almost always left permanently scarred and sometimes blind
• In 1979, smallpox was declared extinct, making it the only human disease to have been wiped out by medical action
• Edward Jenner was a rural Doctor interested in science and nature
• Local milkmaids seemed to get the much milder disease cowpox from working with cattle
• Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids who contracted cowpox were subsequently immune from smallpox
• Edward Jenner's vaccination process

  1. Extracting pus from a cowpox sore on a milkmaid's hand and inserting it into a healthy boy through cuts on May 13th, 1796

  2. Observing the boy's symptoms over the following days after the inoculation

  3. Inoculating the boy with smallpox pus to prove immunity

  4. Repeating the smallpox inoculation with no disease following, proving immunity
• James Phipps, the test subject, showed symptoms of uneasiness, slight headache, and restlessness after the cowpox inoculation but recovered well
• James Phipps was immune to smallpox after being vaccinated with cowpox by Edward Jenner
• Vaccination with cowpox

  Prevented the recipient from contracting smallpox
• The term "vaccination" originates from the Latin word "Vaca" meaning cow, as Edward Jenner's original vaccine contained cowpox
• Vaccination


  Contain cowpox to prevent contracting smallpox
• Edward Jenner's original cowpox vaccine led to the term "vaccinations" (from the original Vaca for cow)
• Jenner introduced a smallpox vaccine


  End of the 18th century
• Smallpox vaccine wasn't widely used right away
• Vaccination laws were first enforced

  Late 1860s
• Vaccination laws introduced

  People more strictly went for vaccines due to the spike in smallpox cases
• Strict enforcement of vaccination laws


  Resulted in a precipitous drop in smallpox cases
• In 1979, smallpox was declared extinct
• Speaker: 'Quote'
• Opposition to new ideas often occurs
• James Gilray's cartoon in 1802 depicted opposition to Jenner's vaccine
• Cartoon caption: "The cow pox or pox or the wonderful effects of the new inoculation" was published by the anti-vaccine society
• Cartoon shows people queuing up for vaccination despite the negative portrayal
• People were given an opening preparation and then received cuts on the arm swabbed with cowpox
• Cartoon exaggerates effects of vaccination with cows leaping out of boils on vaccinated individuals
• Exam style question: What can be inferred about people's reactions to Jenner's smallpox vaccination?
• Exam style advice: Structuring inferences from a source
• Stopping smallpox was not new, inoculation was already being used to prevent smallpox
• Inoculation


  Spreading pus from a smallpox pustule into a cut on the skin of a healthy person to build up antibodies against smallpox
• Inoculation became big business, successful in cutting deaths from smallpox, and different from vaccination
• Success of inoculation

  • Robert and Daniel Sutton carried out thousands of inoculations
• There was opposition to vaccination, some from inoculators and doctors who were no longer making money, others due to treatment linked with animals or cases where it hadn't worked
• Opposition to Jenner as he wasn't a London Doctor
• Jenner showed the value of scientific method, saving thousands from smallpox, encouraging other scientists to solve medical problems
• Inoculation had limited impact on smallpox, being risky, while vaccination did not have these risks and was given for free by Jenner with government help
• Vaccination saved many lives, leading to a significant fall in deaths from smallpox, and eventually wiping out smallpox worldwide in the 1970s
• Vaccination was not compulsory for many years, only becoming so in 1852, with fines for non-compliance starting in 1871
• Government's slow enforcement of vaccination led to many preventable deaths
• Vaccination did not lead to immediate breakthroughs in other diseases, being a one-off discovery focused on smallpox