History of Smallpox: ;xNLx;;xNLx;One of the deadliest diseases known to humans, for three millennia the smallpox virus had the most profound effect on human health and history. Lesions found on the mummified body of pharaoh Ramses V from the twelfth century BCE suggests smallpox was responsible for countless millions of human deaths over the course of thousands of years (McDermott, 2005, pp. 435-6). Smallpox has had a profound impact on world history, which influenced the choice of the background picture which depicts the worldwide spread of endemic virus along trade routes. Smallpox has contributed to the destruction of economies, decimation of populations and has been used as a biological weapon. It is the only human disease to have been eradicated by vaccination, which was pioneered in 1789 by English physician, Edward Jenner who is pictured here to the left (Baxby, 2004). A massive world-wide effort to eradicate the virus began in the 1960s which was led by the World Health Organisation, who declared smallpox had been eradicated in 1980. Today, two official repositories preserve strains of the virus for research purposes, the US Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta and the Ivanovsky Institute of Virology in Moscow (McDermott, 2005, pp. 435-6). ;xNLx;;xNLx;Symptoms and Transmission:;xNLx;;xNLx;Smallpox is an acute contagious viral disease, with fever and pustules that usually leave permanent scars (Oxford English Dictionary, 2018). The two viruses that cause smallpox, the variola major and variola minor, are spread through physical contact with infected victims, sometimes through droplets from nasal or oral secretions and sometimes through contact with scabs carried on bedding, towels, clothing, or other fabrics (Baker-Blocker, 2017, p.2).;xNLx;;xNLx;Mortality Rate: ;xNLx;;xNLx;About 20-30% of smallpox cases of the variola major type ended in death. Survivors had varying degrees of scarring and deformities and blindness could occur as a result of corneal scarring. Variola minor was less severe and caused fewer deaths (Baxby, 2004). Survivors of the viruses have a life-long immunity to the virus.;xNLx;;xNLx;;xNLx;
Smallpox, the human strain of the Variola Virus is thought to have been in existence since the first Agricultural communities as far as 10000 BC
The Chinese were amongst the first nation to practice inoculation, their ideas were thought to have paved the way for the smallpox vaccination.
The practice of inoculation, which is often referred to as variolation, is ‘the insertion of a small amount of matter from a pustule of a smallpox patient into the skin of a healthy subject’ (Glynn and Glynn, 2005, p. 44). A very mild attack of smallpox was usually caused after this type of inoculation process, granting the patient lifelong immunity. The video clip linked to this slide depicts the process of this method of inoculation.
The smallpox virus was used as a biological weapon for many centuries, one of the oldest documented examples was during the fourteenth century where Tartar forces catapulted the corpses of smallpox victims into besieged towns. The Tartars successfully used biological material against their enemies to weaken and kill a large portion of the population (Alibek, 2004). This slide will examine how imperial armies manipulated the spread of the disease to their own advantage by using the smallpox virus as a biological weapon.
On May 14 1796, English Doctor Edward Jenner commenced a new era in medicine, where a vaccination was born for the only human disease to ever be eradicated (DiMaio, 2016).
Jenner’s reputation spread amazingly fast through Europe and beyond and by 1823 the vaccine had spread to four continents. However, the vaccine was not entirely without fault and significate complications were experienced when treating the general population at large. This slide will look at the problems involved with early vaccinations and analyse how scientist developed technologies to make the vaccine available to societies throughout the world (Glynn and Glynn, 2005, p. 115). To find out more about the technologies behind the vaccine, please visit our Twitter account by clicking on the tab below.
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European imperialists did not distribute the smallpox vaccine to other countries around the world. Instead, they used the vaccine to negotiate terms and withheld it to increase their territory and power. One example, which will be looked at in this slide, is how the British used the smallpox vaccine to help them increase their imperial empire by gaining colonial rule over India.
Isolation and Quarantine were used as a method of containing outbreaks of smallpox and preventing its spread on a large scale, hoping to keep outbreaks localised. Quarantine measurers to prevent the spread of the smallpox virus from ships arriving from the West Indies have been recorded as early as 1647 in Boston as they believed containment was the best option to prevent this disease. (Glynn and Glynn, 2005, p. 36).
By the early twentieth century, advances in medical technology meant that the smallpox vaccine was widely available throughout the world. However, millions of people were still dying of smallpox every year. One reason why so many people did not have the vaccination, even though it was readily available, is because they protested against government compulsory vaccination programs, maintaining their civil liberties had been compromised. One example, which will be analysed in this slide, is in 1908 where nine thousand people died in the worst smallpox epidemic in the history of Rio de Janeiro. This entry will examine how and why the Brazilian government and the Department of Health were unsuccessful in the implementation of their compulsory vaccination program and consider the consequences of their failure.
Smallpox severely hindered human ambitions for thousands of years before the World Health Organisation declared it to be eradicated in 1980 following a global immunisation campaign which lasted over twenty years. This eradication campaign was ‘both medically and politically one of the most remarkable achievements of the twentieth century’ (Glynn and Glynn, 2005, p. 190). Thanks to the advances in medical technology, which were advocated and pioneered by the likes of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Edward Jenner and Benjamin Rubin, the prediction made in 1806 by the President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, that ‘in the future the peoples of the world will learn about this disgusting smallpox disease only from ancient traditions’ finally became reality (Glynn and Glynn, 2005, p. 195).
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