One of the most important inventions in human history is vaccine. Vaccine is used to stimulate the production of antibodies and help the body fight against one or several diseases. The invention of vaccines helps to save millions of lives and prevent the diseases from spreading. Edward Jenner is remembered as “Father of Immunology” because he was the first scientist to invent the vaccines for smallpox.
Smallpox is thought to be at least 3000 years old, and it has spread from Africa to India and China. Eventually, it turns into an epidemic in 31 countries by 1967. The virus is airborne and it attacks skin cells, spleen, bone marrow and lymph nodes. Approximately 30% of infected people died during the second week of infection. Infected ones
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Years before he became a physician, he had heard tales of dairymaids were somehow protected from smallpox by somehow suffering cowpox. Cowpox is a disease that infects cows, caused by a virus of the same family as smallpox virus. He then tested his theory of immune from cowpox may cause subsequent immune from smallpox on an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps. He used the matters from a dairymaid 's pustule to inoculate James. James experienced few days of fever and discomfort, but soon he felt better. Two months later, Jenner inoculated the boy again, but with matter from smallpox lesions. When the boy did not develop any diseases, Jenner concluded that the protection was complete.
Previously to Jenner’s discovery, there had been attempts to treat smallpox. Variolation was pretty common in places where epidemics happened. However, Jenner was the first one to successfully create a vaccine for smallpox. In addition to treating smallpox, Edward Jenner brought hope that this disease that affected 60% of the world’s population can be controlled. In 1967, World Health Organization launched a massive campaign to eradicate this deadly disease completely. The discovery and promotion of this vaccine helped save lives. His vaccines were later further developed by his
One of the biggest contribution was the polio vaccine.
This allowed for more experiments to be done which lead to the development of the polio vaccine. As stated by Neil Bhavsar, “the vaccine developed… was only possible because HeLa cells were able to survive in Vitro. The HeLa cells were easy to infect and study, and therefore provided the perfect subject” (Bhavsar). The vaccine itself was developed by a scientists of the name of Jonas Salk. The ability for the cells to be easily infected allowed for the continued development of the polio vaccine.
This allowed the vaccine to be cheap to research and have a low cost. Since it was cheap to research Albert Sabin was able to create an oral polio vaccine. The oral vaccine is now used to vaccinate people in developing countries. Around the 1950s there was a polio epidemic and the cheap cost made it available to everyone, and since 1979 there have been no reported cases of polio in the United States. It should be disclosed that at the time patenting a biological agent was unheard
Notorious B.I.G.’s Estate Dismisses Kylie and Kendall Jenner’s Apology Recently, the Jenner sisters, Kylie and Kendall, launched a fashion line of Rap vs. Rock T-shirts which were included in their Kendall + Kylie collection. Some of their designs sported images of Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur which were highly criticized by many social media fans as insensitive. The highly famous feud between the East and West Coast group of Notorious B.I.G. and Shakur is speculated to be the cause of both rapper’s murder. After the Jenner sisters came out with an apology over the fashion fiasco, B.I.G.’s estate replied with this statement to People Magazine: “While we appreciate that the Jenners have made an apology and pulled the unlawful and unauthorized items, this matter has yet to be resolved.”
Boston Smallpox Epidemic of 1721: When smallpox broke out in Boston, Cotton Mather introduced an untested medical procedure called “inoculation”, which would introduce a small amount of the virus to a patient, in hoping they would become immune to it. Many were opposed to it, even though it worked. Many people died due to the epidemic. 31. Common Sense: Thomas Paine wrote a book called "Common Sense", it sold more than 150,000 copies when the population was only 3 million.
Edward Jenner, an english doctor found a less risky form of variation. He learned that cowpox, a milder form of smallpox, they wouldn’t develop smallpox.
Throughout the 19th and 20th century, there have been medical inventions and discoveries that have prevented countless medical conditions and diseases, resulting in healthier lives for American citizens. Although there were many inventions and discoveries made throughout this period, the 1950s had the largest impact on the lives of American citizens. Throughout the decade, many impactful discoveries were made that have both saved and drastically lengthened the lives of many people. Because of this, the 1950s were one of the most important decades for the discovery of medical diseases and conditions. The key medical advancements made during the 1950s include the creation of the polio vaccine that has saved countless lives since its creation,
They found new medicine to cure diseases and limit child labor laws so children under a certain age wouldn’t have to be forced to work. This new medicine would help children not suffer from smallpox. Smallpox was a disease that would spread like a wildfire that would make your skin itch and turn all red. The creator of the smallpox vaccine was Edward Jenner. There were about 1500 inhabitants who worked in the mills.
Jonas Salk was an American physician, immunologist and a virologist, someone who studies viruses. He set some goals for himself: “To establish an institute that would explore questions about the basic principles in life,” and “to make it possible for biologists and others to work together in a collaborative environment that would encourage them to consider the wider implications of their discoveries for the future of humanities (www.salk.edu).” Because of his goal, that he clearly stated, Salk became referred to as the “Father of Biophilosophy.” He was also named as the “Father of Biophilosophy” because he also didn’t patent his vaccine. Salk would have been richer by $7 billion if his vaccine were patented. (www.forbes.com)
At times the mortality rate was not less than one-sixth of the birth rate. Modern medicine had developed significantly since this time, but during this period, the only way people believed this disease could be prevented was through inoculation. Before the discovery of the vaccine, people would infect themselves and their children with the smallpox virus in the hopes to become immune to it. The process included using a “lancet wet with fresh matter taken from a ripe pustule of some person who suffered from smallpox… and then subcutaneously introduced on the arms or legs of the nonimmune person.”
Due to the smallpox epidemic threat, the inoculation procedure got popular in other places and for other similar diseases. The benefits of inoculation outweighed the risks for children. Boylston figured out inoculation could produce certain type of immunity for the virus which can terminate the infection and save lives. Also, he ensured from his experiments that the inoculation process had less fatal structure of the disease in the human body. The author illustrated that several obstacles were overtaken to prevent the outbreak from spreading, a contamination which infected numerous people in 1721, and there were many controversies about the inoculation process and experimentation to inoculate the disease into a healthy person.
The particular weapon or better yet biological microorganism that I have chosen to outline this week is that of a particularly nasty strain of disease which has wiped out an unknown multitude of people throughout history. This infectious disease, known as the genus Orthopoxvirus, from the the family Poxviridae and subfamily of chordopoxvirinae, is potentially believed to have laid to waste whole civilizations of people. It also goes by the name “Red Plague”, or in more common parlance, “The Smallpox Virus.” Historically, this virus made its way to Europe sometime between the 5th and 7th centuries. According to Reidel (2005), “It was frequently epidemic during the Middle Ages.
During this time smallpox was a widespread disease and was a significant cause of death. Jenner was in a rural era so when smallpox hot Berkeley everyone who got cowpox (a disease from cattle) didn 't get smallpox. Now all Jenner needed was to test out his theory. Then a women with blister in her hand came to Dr. Jenner, he saw she had cow pox so he drew her blood and mixed it with other things to complete the vaccine. In 1998, he officially put out his findings.
The epidemic of smallpox is one of the most groundbreaking moments in medical history. It created the usage of vaccination to be extremely normal. Smallpox had manages to kill millions of people, which was a large part of the population at the time. So when a Edward Jenner came up with a vaccine that could treat it and doctors were easily able to diagnose people with it. It only took around fourteen year to see that smallpox was no longer something people needed to fear.
Once the child recovered from the cowpox disease, Jenner then tried to infect the child with smallpox, but the young man proved to be immune. “It seemed that this attempt at vaccination had worked. But Jenner had to work on for two more years before his discovery was considered sufficiently tested by the medical profession to permit widespread introduction.” (Alexander, 2003). Beginning in 1831 and ending in 1835, due to increasing vaccination, smallpox deaths were down to one in a thousand.