Edward Jenner Flashcards
What is small pox?
-contagious disease that causes rashes over the body
-one of the biggest killer diseases in the eighteenth century
-30% death rate
-highly infectious virus spread by coughing, sneezing or touching an infected person
-survivors were left with scares, joint pain and blindness
What is inoculation?
-Involved giving a health person a mild dose of the disease
-It became fashionable after lady Montague had her children inoculated
-became common in the 1740s and many doctors became rich from the procedure
Problems with inoculation…
-Could contract the full disease or not enough to gain immunity
-Lack of understanding
-Religious objections, believing that preventing sickness was interfering with God’s will
-People could not afford inoculation
Who is Edward jenner?
1749-1823
Was a country doctor from Gloucester
Jenner’s discovery
-discovered vaccination, from a mill-maid who claimed she would get the disease because she had already had cowpox
-He decided to test his theory in 1796 by giving cowpox to james phipps and then 6 weeks later some small pox
-He never became ill to small pox
-published in 1798
Opposition
-diseases was sent by God to challenge you, so preventing it would go against him
-people felt it wasn’t safe as it would give you animal disease (people would grow animal parts)
-he couldn’t explain how it worked because he did not know about germ theory
-attempt to repeat his experiment by others failed as their equipment was contaminated and the patient died
Why was it finally accepted?
-vaccination was less dangerous than inoculation
-member of the royal family were vaccinated, which influenced opinion
-parliament acknowledge jenner’s research and granted £10,000
-Jenner proved the effectiveness of the vaccine by a scientific experiment
Short term effect
-stopped people from dieing from small pox
Long term effect
-small pox was eradicated in 1980
-helped the development of more vaccines
