Smallpox Essay

It was brought to the natives by settlers who traveled westward. During the time of the disease, Waterlily had to move away from the town with relatives in hope of avoiding the sickness. This quote in Waterlily reads, “Soon it (smallpox) was to break out in all its racing fury and their stay in the wilds was to become a series of unforgettable horrors" (Waterlily 200). In this quote, the reader sees that life became worse for Waterlily when she moved away. Waterlily’s husband died along with nine others in their small camp, leaving only two left alive.

One major disease was small pox. Smallpox, an acute contagious viral disease, with fever and pustules usually leaving permanent scars. It was effectively eradicated through vaccination by the year 1979. Many people died from this disease. “A violent kind of smallpox rages in Charles-Town that brings most of the businesses to a halt.

We Americans now depend on most electronics to go about our lives. We use electronics to communicate, find information, socialize, and now to do homework. Back in the day before the United States were born people like Ben Franklin and others were creating these wonderful inventions to help easy the life of colonial people. The Middle Colonies needed a plow to fasten the process of farming crops. The virus smallpox started an epidemic and a vaccine would help lower the risk of people getting the disease.

Antisepsis wasn’t the only way to prevent illness. By the end of the 18th century people had found a way to try to prevent smallpox, a disease that had caused around 60 million deaths in Europe in that century alone. They had noticed that the survivors of smallpox never developed the disease again, so they began to scratch small pieces of smallpox sores into their skin, which would give them a mild case of smallpox, so they wouldn’t develop full-blown smallpox later. This was called variolation. They only problem was that sometimes it would cause a full-blown case instead of a mild one.

This is when my greedy scrooge side kicked in. I’ve come to think that my parents died from smallpox we had been learning about it in school but my parents had the same symptoms rash on face, pain in their backs and they always had a high fever. If that’s what their guy had this is going to sound bad but he didn’t have much time left there is no cure and these guys are some of the biggest criminals in london.

One of Cortés’ men contracted smallpox from a member of the force from Cuba. That soldier died during the Aztec rebellion, and when his body was looted, an Aztec caught the disease, which spread like wildfire because the Aztec people had no immunity to it. Cortés regrouped and attacked Tenochtitlán in full force in 1521. At that time, the city’s society had crumpled. The Aztecs no longer trusted Montezuma, they were short on food, and the smallpox epidemic was under way.

By smearing puss from a victim of smallpox into a fairly healthy man, it fights the infection. Only about one out of fifty patients die. It was stated by Dr. Albigence Waldo, “Vomit half my time”, This is a common case amongst us soldiers. I see my friends get amputated on and killed every single day of my life.

The victims struggling with this disease had coughed up blood and had terrible sores all over their bodies. This led to them dying as quick as the same night they were infected. This disease spread throughout Europe killing millions of people. The deadly plague in Central America had come from Europe. Xajila describes the symptoms of this deadly plague as, “there was a cough, then the blood was corrupted, and the urine became yellow” (Pomeranz 74).

Another similarity between Smallpox and the black death is that they both advanced important movements. Smallpox is credited with being the cause of the rise of the American abolition movement. White people living in the slave ports feared for their own health, which brought the notion of the movement itself. The Black Death is credited with being the cause of the Reformation. Due to people like William the One-day Priest, the church was thought to be corrupt.

Among the many things spread and shared in the Columbian Exchange, the trading of diseases is perhaps the most significant. The natives of the Americas had never experienced the serious diseases that European explorers carried over to the New World. From smallpox to influenza and malaria to cholera, Native American populations were drastically decreased due to their poor immunity. Between the numerous amounts of European diseases, though, measles was the most remarkable in that its effects were both widespread and enduring. Measles, also known as rubeola, is a respiratory infection caused by the measles virus.

As the Europeans found native along the coasts of the New World, they found them easily malleable and able to be used, so they enslaved them and those who fought back were wiped out. Europeans, as well as the Africans, had built up a resistance to many diseases such as smallpox and were therefore not really affected as much by the diseases if they became sick. However, the Native Americans had not had contact with the disease and it quickly spread rapidly and slowly helped the Spanish rid themselves of the natives so they could take control of the land. Geoffrey Cowley offers insight on just how profound the effect of smallpox was when he writes, “ ...When the newcomers arrived carrying mumps, measles, whooping cough, smallpox, cholera, gonorrhea and yellow fever, the Indians were immunologically

Smallpox | PBS 2005) This is not to say that before the Europeans went to the new worlds that the native people were surviving for years with no diseases in their system. This is, in fact, untrue, there were diseases present before the Europeans appearance, however due to the fact that

Vaccinations When it comes to vaccinations, there are many different opinions on immunizing a child, especially when that child’s parent has a strong like or dislike towards vaccinating. Immunizations have existed for at least a thousand years and as technology advances more, there are new vaccines being designed to help protect our children from contracting contagious and sometimes deadly diseases, such as Bordetella pertussis, polio, and even influenza. For decades, all 50 states have required that parents vaccinate their children against various diseases, including polio and measles, as a prerequisite to enrolling them in public schools (Ciolli, 2008). Enrollment in public school requires up to date vaccinations in order to protect the children and even the adults from contracting and spreading a disease, possibly causing an epidemic.

Smallpox outbreaks have occurred from time to time for thousands of years, but the disease is now eradicated after a successful worldwide vaccination program. The last naturally occurring case in the world was in Somalia in 1977. After the disease was eliminated from the world, routine vaccination against smallpox among the general public was stopped because it was no longer necessary for prevention. In 1970, when smallpox was nearly eradicated, a previously unrecognized orthopoxvirus named monkey pox was identified in humans.

There’s evidence that this virus existed all the way back to Egyptian times when a mummified child showed a disfigured and shortened lower limb. This virus that attacks the nerves of the brain and spinal cord and may result in paralysis of muscles, usually asymmetrically, with lower limb involvement. Polio is spread through person-to-person contact, typically fecal-oral transmission. When a child is infected with wild poliovirus, the virus enters the body through the mouth and multiplies in the intestine. It is then shed into the environment through the feces where it can spread rapidly through a community, especially in situations where poor hygiene and sanitation are lacking.