Cadet Matthew R. Saunders, II

3/6/2017

Artifact #4

Artifact 4 – Smallpox and Vaccines

Smallpox is definitely one of the worst diseases that humanity has had to deal with. Smallpox is best known for what it does to the human flesh. It is extremely painful and in the twentieth century alone it killed three hundred million people. The American Indians had no immunity to the disease; this nearly wiped them off the earth; in particular the Aztecs and Incas. Living during that time would have been mentally straining. During the peak of the disease it was understood almost that at some point in life you would contract smallpox which would be terrifying. The disease itself was deadly and if for some miracle someone survived, there would be lasting scars. Like the majority of diseases the Smallpox is believed to have originated from a domesticated animal. Ramses V actually had Smallpox in 1157BC. Smallpox was contracted by face to face contact, air, infected body fluids, and contaminated objects. Smallpox was identifiable through lesions on the hands and feet typically and could include the body and face. The lesions or blisters were typically round with thick fluid inside and a depression in the middle. Smallpox was spread though war, movement of populations, trade routes, and the trading of slaves.

Some of the cures thought to fix this terrible disease started with bloodletting, leeches, fasting, laxatives, purgatives, and diuretics. On top of those treatments heating or cooling therapy was also used and these techniques were fairly ineffective and probably caused the victim more pain then were necessary.  Not long after came Red Therapy which was thought to helps cure the disease as well. To do this therapy one had have red walls, blankets, clothing, curtains, and lights; this was rather extreme and had no long term benefit for the patient.  Variolation came out next which was the process of taking the disease and scratching the surface of the skin and applying it to a small area. This in fact did help prevent some from contracting the disease and having it be life threatening. The basic thought was to see if one could contract a less serious form of the disease and build immunity for Smallpox. This became popular in the time of its finding. However, a man with the last name Jenner was the first to perform was is known as a vaccination. Jenner noticed that milk maids that had cow pox, which was most of them, could not get Smallpox. His action was very bold, he took a swab of this cowpox which was not life threatening and gave it to an eight year old boy. Sure enough he contracted cowpox; once he was healthy he then infected him with Smallpox which could be extremely painful and potentially deadly. Weeks went by and the eight year boy was fine, he had beaten Smallpox. This was the newest way to prevent Smallpox and in most developed area people were vaccinated and from that point on it did not affect the entire world once the word spread. However, in undeveloped third world countries Smallpox would still bring havoc until almost 1980.

Vaccines came to the rescue, World Health Organization workers had planned to vaccinate everyone in the undeveloped areas where Smallpox was still a threat in the mid nineteen hundreds. However, they were going to run out of vaccinations so they adapted and decided to survey an area that was affected and focus their vaccines where they were needed. This ended up years later actually defeating Smallpox right around 1980. This was a huge accomplishment for all involved and humanity in order to get rid of one of the most deadly diseases.