Zusammenfassung der Ressource
1750-1900 the fight against smallpox: Jenner and vaccination
- If you catch a disease, your body creates special cells
called antibodies to fight off the infection
- and if you survive you may become immune to any further attacks of that disease
- This idea led to a procedure called inoculation
- 1. A small amount of pus is taken from a sufferer's smallpox blister
- 2. It is spread into a small cut made between the thumb
and the forefinger of the person being innoculated
- 3. A mild version of smallpox develops; the person survives and is then immune to further attacks
- HOWEVER, inoculation did not completely solve the problem of smallpox
- Because not everyone could afford to have it done
- and inoculation was not always effective or safe
- Local people said they did not need to be inoculated
- They claimed that if they had already had cowpox they would not catch smallpox
- Jenner decided to check this idea...
- Smallpox parties
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (the wife of the British ambassador to Turkey)
- She witnessed the inoculation in the early 18th century
- She had nearly died from smallpox when she was younger
- She was keen to protect her children - she had them inoculated in 1721
- The idea of inoculations quickly became very popular in Britain
- People would even have smallpox parties
- Where they would all be inoculated together
- Since doctors were paid for this, they could make a lot of money
- Edward Jenner ( a doctor in Gloucestershire )
- 14 May 1796 - 'took some cowpox matter from a blister on the arm of
Sarah Nelmes and inserted it into two cuts made on James' arm'
- 'A week later he became chilly, lost his appetite and had a headache - but the next day he was completely well
- inoculated him with smallpox but he was immune to it!
- To make sure of his findings, he vaccinated 23 others including his 11 month old son
- People were immune- he published his ideas giving the name 'Vaccination' to his new technique of inoculation with cowpox
- Vacca is the Latin for cow
- HOWEVER , the Royal Society refused to publish his account
- He had to pay for his report to be printed himself.
- He called this vaccination
- In 1802 the British Government awarded Jenner £10,000 for his work
against smallpox - 5 years later they gave him an additional £20,000
- Jenner's Work
- The link only existed between smallpox and cowpox. It did not work for any other diseases
- Jenner worked in a scientific way and did a number of tests
- Jenner had pamphlets (like leaflets) printed for other scientists to
read: the pamphlets described his experiments very clearly so
that other scientists could check his work
- Jenner did not mind other people using his ideas - he wanted lots of people to
benefit from his work
- Vaccination showed that it was possible to prevent some people catching a disease
- Jenner could not explain how the link between cowpox and smallpox worked
- Vaccination was not always successful - and some people did
develop smallpox because some doctors did not carry out the
vaccination carefully enough
- In 1802 the Jennarian Society was set up in London to promote vaccination and
within 2 years over 12,000 people had been vaccinated
- The government provided a grant to pay for people to have free vaccinations,
- As a result of this, doctors lost money because people no longer paid for inoculations
- Therefore many doctors opposed Jenner's work
- Napolean in France and president Jefferson in the USA both thought vaccination
was a great breakthrough
- In 1852 the government made it COMPULSORY to be vaccinated
- When the British government enforced compulsory vaccination in 1872
- The number of smallpox cases dropped dramatically, and in 1979 the World Health Organization announced that smallpox had been wiped out completely