Chapter 2.4 - Preventation Of Disease Flashcards
Tell me about dr Andrew Wakefield
Published a paper in the lancet, the British medical journal suggesting their was a clear link between MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine given to all young children and autism - claimed evidence that being vaccinated with MMR vaccine led to development of autism in some cases
Proportion of parents having their children vaccinated plummeted
Dr wakes field study has been rejected by the medical world and been shown as bad science but it lead to many people distrusting all vaccines and so since 95% of target population must be vaccinated to be successful it lead to epidemics and reemergences of some disease
Tell me about smallpox
It’s an acute contagious disease caused by the variola virus - declared eradicated in 1980 by a global vaccination campaign
Earlier times it was an absolute killer, between 30 and 60% of those who caught it does - those who had could be left blind and disfigured by scars
Smallpox had long been endemic in Britain and was a feared killer In 17th century
Major epidemic killed at least 35,000 in 1796 and 42,000 between 1837 and 1840
Queen Mary died of smallpox in 1694 - people thought it was created by miasma
Tell me about vaccinations and inoculations in early modern Britain
Vaccination was new to Britain and dates from the 18th century
Inoculations had been used long before - basically involved a mild form of smallpox being introduced into a scratch made between finer and thumb - person with inoculation developed a mild form of disease and became immune to stronger fatal version
What did Edward Jenner do
He heard the local gossip that milkmaids who caught cowpox never seemed to get small pox
Reasoned cow pox have them immunity but he had to prove it
So he experimented on A 9 year old boy James Phipps who had neither cowpox or smallpox, injected pus from sores of a milk maid with cow pox and he developed cow pox - when he recovered he cave an injection of small pox and found he was immune
Submitted a paper to Royal society in 1797 but told he needed more proof so even experimented on 11 month son
Finally in 1798 Jenner published “an inquiry into the causes and effects of the varioae vaccinae” - or cow pox
Continued work on vaccination and in 1802 awarded £10,000 by government for his work and a further £20,000 in 1807 after the Royal college of physicians confirmed how effective it was
What was the reaction like to vaccinations
It was mixed
Those who charged £20 a time to inoculate patients felt livelihoods were threatened and didn’t like ideas of change
Many thought it was wrong to inject cowpox into humans
Some argued smallpox was gods punishment for a sinful life so we shouldn’t interfere or limit the spread of disease
Others thought it should be up to parents to decide for children
Others were for and against vaccination, felt strongly it was not the governments job to interfere
Tell me about the impacts on the vaccinations of small pox
In 1840 partly as a result of epidemic in 1837-1840, vaccination made free to all infants and in 1853 it was compulsory but not strictly enforced
Seems strange laissez-Faire government, which was reluctant to interfere in people’s lives made vaccination compulsory - shows there was a lot of fear of smallpox as a killer disease
There was an anti vaccine league set up in 1866 to oppose compulsory vaccination and not until 1871 the government decreed parents could be fined for not having children vaccinated
In 1887 once death rate had fallen dramatically the government introduced right to parents to refuse vaccination
In 20th century what were once childhood and endemic disease killers such as polio, measles, diphtheria and whooping cough have almost been eliminated through vaccination programmes and the work of people like Koch and Erhlich
Tell me about child bed fever
Alexander Gordon was a naval surgeon and studied an outbreak of child bed fever and worked out what caused the deaths
Noticed women in outlying villages who were treated by village doctor or midwives moving from patient to patient were much more likely to die
Proposed cure was simple, medical practitioners ought to wash their clothes frequently and wash their hands in chlorinated water to help limit spread of disease
When he published results in 1795 he was derided by the whole of the medical profession and many years before it was implemented
Summarise the prevention of disease in early modern Britain
Edward Jenner discovered how to stop people catching smallpox
The government eventually made vaccination compulsory
Smallpox was virtually eliminated as a killer disease in just a few years
Many people opposed idea of compulsory vaccination and still do today
Vaccination is a worldwide succes as many killers have been eliminated
Child mortality remained high and around 30% of children dying before 5
