1 janv. 1796 - Edward Jenner: Vaccination

Description:

Edward Jenner was a country doctor in Gloucestershire during the 18th century. During this time, smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases - thousands of adults and more children were killed than any other disease, and survivors were left scarred and disfigured. The only way to prevent smallpox was inoculation; introduced by Lady Montagu in 1718, it involved soaking cuts with pus from people with a mild form of smallpox - while it was successful in preventing the disease, it was dangerous as it meant patients had to experience some form of smallpox before immunity, which could end in death or spread.
Jenner observed that milkmaids who caught cowpox never caught smallpox. In 1796, he injected a small boy, James Phipps, with pus from cowpox sores. He then infected him with smallpox a few days later; the boy did not catch the disease.

Jenner published his findings in 1798, calling his method 'vaccination' after the Latin word for cow: vacca. His discovery soon got the approval of Parliament, which gave Jenner a total of £30,000 for vaccination clinics after 1802. In 1840, vaccination against smallpox was made free for infants; in 1853 it was made compulsory.

However, despite the success of vaccination and the contribution it made to a significant decrease in smallpox cases, many people opposed it. Some people did not like the idea of change, and did not accept the evidence Jenner gave that vaccination worked due to his inability to explain how. They were also concerned about being given a disease from a cow to prevent a human disease. Many doctors opposed it as they made a lot of money from inoculations, and saw it as a threat to their livelihood. Vaccination was seen as dangerous as not all doctors performed it as carefully as Jenner, potentially mixing up the vaccines and using infected needles. Some opposed compulsory vaccination as they said it was an attack on their personal liberty, and they should choose whether they should be able to get it or not.

Overall, Jenner's work was an excellent example of using scientific methods of experiment and enquiry, and encouraged other scientists to solve medical problems. Vaccination became widely used and led to a significant decrease in smallpox deaths; unlike inoculations, which were very dangerous and expensive, it was free and effective at preventing smallpox.

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