Smallpox was one of the worst diseases human history has ever seen. Throughout much of history, 12^th to 19^th centuries, smallpox has completely ravaged Europe, leaving people dead in its wake. Smallpox has thankfully been combated today, but it still posed one of the worst threats as a disease that the world has ever seen.

Smallpox was a large epidemic that constantly kept coming back in Europe. Many families would be split apart due to this disease killing loved ones, and those were the families that were lucky smallpox didn’t infect the entire family. In those days, being infected with smallpox was basically just a death sentence, with those infected just waiting for the disease to pass through their system and kill them. Living in those times would have been very tough. Knowing everyday that you or someone you love could be infected and definitely die from this disease is heavy to carry on ones conscious. For much of the middle ages there weren’t many treatments that were effective. These treatments included bloodletting, leeches, fasting, laxative, purgatives, diuretics, and red therapy. These efforts were futile as many victims died anyways. It wasn’t until the late 18^th century that a treatment became effective.

Inoculation was very effective when it came to preventing smallpox from spreading. While being practiced in the early 18^th century England, it didn’t become a mainstream idea until later that century. Edward Jenner had heard stories of how it was an effective treatment and decided to do his own research. In his research he found that those who had previously had cowpox and who had a smallpox inoculation were resistant to getting smallpox. He decided to test the theory on his son and it worked. This led to the vaccine for smallpox being led mainstream by 1803; the same year vaccine was coined as a term.

Many were initially against the vaccine, as it was basically giving yourself a disease, but it had continued to become effective in combating smallpox. Smallpox victim numbers went down significantly. However, due to it being a new idea, many were still opposed to the idea. It eventually would become a very mainstream idea, but the initial response was skeptic.