Brady Gannon
Artifact 4
Up until relatively recent, small pox was one of the most deadly diseases known in human history. The disease manifested itself in sores all over the host’s body, making it extremely contagious and extremely deadly. In the earlier years in history, nobody knew where the disease was coming from, or how to treat it. One of the early associations made with the disease was the color red, it was believed that the color red and heat would burn the disease out. Small pox patients were put into a warm room with red walls, furniture, clothes, etc. and were left with no real medicinal treatment to combat the epidemic.
It wasn’t until the 1700s until the first real effective treatment was developed by Lady Mary Montague. She created the process of variolation. Puss from the small pox sores were put on skin and scratched in, the results from this process was astounding, patients’ symptoms were much milder and the death rate significantly decreased. They did not realize why it worked but they were unintentionally creating small pox antibodies in their immune system to fight the deadly disease.
Lady Mary Montague was a pioneer in the immunization arena that helped Edward Jenner discover the small pox vaccine in a similar manner in 1796. Jenner noticed that the milkmaids were immune to the cow pox that was a common zoonotic disease for the era. This inspired Jenner to take pus from the wound of an infected individual and inoculate an 8 year old boy with the infected pus. This method proved to work and the boy was immune to the epidemic. Edward Jenner is widely recognized as the father of immunization.
The smallpox vaccine was used for decades after that to combat the disease and was discontinued in the 1970s. Not everyone was vaccinated because individuals with autoimmune diseases were extremely susceptible and their bodies cannot produce the necessary antibodies for the vaccine to work. This is why we, even today, rely on herd immunity in not only small pox but for many diseases with vaccines available. This is why it is so important for parents to vaccinate their children and for everyone to get a vaccine, the more people vaccinated means the lower chance of someone who is medically unable to be vaccinated to become compromised with the disease. Recent news however shows that people who are not vaccinated can still receive small pox via secondary or tertiary transmission by sexual contact with someone freshly vaccinated.
Help Received
Smallpox film
Smallpox – the speckled monster powerpoint
Secondary and Tertiary Transmission of Vaccinia Virus after Sexual Contact with a Smallpox Vaccinee – San Diego, California, 2012