Edward Jenner Smallpox Vaccination Essay
Smallpox was a disease that plagued humankind for centuries, but it was also the only disease to be completely eradicated by vaccination. Edward Jenner’s discovery of the smallpox vaccination offered protection against the illness where no illness would develop. For the few that did survive smallpox, it was known that they became immune to the disease. Considering this, Jenner’s beginnings in the village of Gloucestershire led to him opening a practice as a village surgeon. While he was in his practice, he realized that the women who milked cows suffering from cowpox did not get smallpox. Subsequently, Jenner took the pus from one of the scabs of a milkmaid, and inoculated a young boy, James Phipps, with it. For that reason, Phipps gained immunity
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Although he had to find his way around the skepticism of others and the initial rejection of his method, he did not give up, and soon enough vaccination became popular through the action of others. In London, Dr. Pearson and Woodville began to support vaccination and recommended it for their patients. From then on, many recipients passed on the vaccine to others, and it was then that Jenner started to gain support from the patients and doctors. The vaccine was sent all around the world and “up to this time, smallpox cases in Europe had been gradually declining in number and severity because of the introduction of vaccines.” Jenner did not look for recognition or fame through his discovery; he devoted so much time to the vaccination that his personal matters began to suffer. It was now that people started to see the importance of vaccination. The British Parliament granted Jenner 30,000 British pounds, and they outlawed any other way to prevent smallpox. Regardless of all the ridicule and obstacles, Jenner continued to work with the vaccination program in an attempt to eradicate the disease once and for all and gradually vaccination replaced variolation. To this day, smallpox is the only infectious disease to have been completely wiped out as a result of human
Although he had to find his way around the skepticism of others and the initial rejection of his method, he did not give up, and soon enough vaccination became popular through the action of others. In London, Dr. Pearson and Woodville began to support vaccination and recommended it for their patients. From then on, many recipients passed on the vaccine to others, and it was then that Jenner started to gain support from the patients and doctors. The vaccine was sent all around the world and “up to this time, smallpox cases in Europe had been gradually declining in number and severity because of the introduction of vaccines.” Jenner did not look for recognition or fame through his discovery; he devoted so much time to the vaccination that his personal matters began to suffer. It was now that people started to see the importance of vaccination. The British Parliament granted Jenner 30,000 British pounds, and they outlawed any other way to prevent smallpox. Regardless of all the ridicule and obstacles, Jenner continued to work with the vaccination program in an attempt to eradicate the disease once and for all and gradually vaccination replaced variolation. To this day, smallpox is the only infectious disease to have been completely wiped out as a result of human