The journey of the first vaccine

In the history of mankind no disease has claimed so many lives, with a mortality rate of approximately 30 percent and millions of deaths throughout history the smallpox was one the greatest threats to humanity.

The virus transmitted very rapidly and at a time when modern medicine was not yet a thing, the infection rate was nearly hundred percent. A century from now, almost everybody would have to face the deadly virus in their life.

Children were the mostly the likely targets of the virus because they had not developed any immunity against it, unlike their parents who may have had it in their own childhood. One reason of high mortality may have been that children were somewhat weaker than adults.

Even if someone survived it, the virus would leave behind hideous scares on the victims. Some would lose their sight or hearing as well. It was an ugly virus against which humanity had no defence against other than getting infected and becoming immune or dyeing in the process.

Many civilizations were crushed because of this virus throughout history. The death of the Hittite king because of the smallpox set of domino effect that ended with the downfall of the civilization. The fastest loss of life was of the native American of the Americas. When the Spanish first arrived at the shores of the Americas and the Pacific islands, they brought with them the virus to the new world. The Aztec and Inca empires were so thoroughly devastated by the virus that the Europeans had no problems at all in the conquest of the natives.

Though, Humans always try to fight back against the odds. There were mystics that claimed to cure and there were others who tried herbal medicine against the virus. The actual first steps against the smallpox was a process called inoculation. In this process the puss was taken from an ill person and applied to a healthy person. This was very risky and had a mortality rate of approximately 3 percent but it was something.

But, the inoculation was very expensive and there was always risk to spread the virus. Some of the people dead because of this and it was considered a gamble with death. The extensive care needed after inoculation made it so that only a select few would get the chance to get the procedure done in the first place.

One young boy named Edward Jenner was also inoculated. He was a very curious boy from the start and went on to study medicine. When he completed his education and started his practice, in 1796 he came across a milkmaid named Sarah Nelmes who had cowpox. It was known at the time that people who got infected with the cowpox would become immune to the smallpox.

Jenner jumped on the opportunity and collected pus from her hands and applied it an eight year boy named James Phipps. This caused the boy to develop a mild fever but in a few days he was healthy again. He then applied material from a smallpox patient to the boy, but he was immune. Jenner tried to publish his finding medical journals, but he faced difficulties, he then went on to test his procedure on multiple other people and they all confirmed his success and at last the medical journals published his findings.

Like in today, the vaccine had many critics and faced great oppositions. The famous doctor refused to accept a solution proposed by some relatively unknown country doctor. Religious personalities all it an attempt to change God’s will, other communities like Hindus refused to use cow as it is very sacred to them. But, Jenner undeterred by oppositions spent his energies to rid humanity of smallpox. Slowly but gradually the world started to believe his method and used vaccination.

He was awarded honours by Napoleon Bonaparte for his contribution to humanity. He was also recognised and honoured by his own parliament and monarch. The Englishman did his best and saved millions and billions of lives.

Though the vaccine was developed, but it would take about two hundred years for the world to actually come together and eradicate it from the face of the planet. In 1967 a global effort toke place, headed by the WHO and mostly funded by the cold war rivals USA and USSR. After a little over two decades in 1980 it was announced that the virus has completed eradicated from the planet present only in a few lab samples in Russia and USA.

The threats to humanity are hard but no impossible to overcome. The Polio has been eradicated from the most the world, it is only still present in Pakistan and Afghanistan, hopefully we shall overcome this challenge soon.