🤩This is Edward Jenner, the “father” of Immunology, and next to him is the smallpox virus. These are who we’ll focus on in today’s healthcare espresso shot!
💉Vol. 8: The development of the first vaccine
🧐🧑🔬1️⃣8️⃣Jenner worked as a physician during the 18th century, at a time when almost everything was different: lack of technology and medical equipment, inability to scientifically document medical procedures, practice of empirical medicine, absence of financial incentives around research and drug sales, extremely limited reach (both offer and demand) of advertising campaigns and promotions, lower popularity of beliefs that health policy making is affected by political motivations, and much more…
🦠🧫🧑⚖️🚫Smallpox is a severe viral infection that plagued humanity for millennia, leading in many cases even to death. In attempts to control the disease, scientific communities in various European countries independently developed the practice of variolation mainly during the 17th century (although there are earlier references in Africa and Eastern countries). Essentially, they deliberately exposed a person to the virus, hoping that they would contract a mild infection and develop lifelong immunity. Quite dangerous and certainly something that today would have legal implications…
🏴In 1757 in England, at the age of 8, Jenner underwent variolation with a positive outcome, fortunately for him and humanity…
🤯🧑🌾🐄As he grew up, Jenner combined the philosophy of variolation with an observation. In rural areas, people working in dairy often contracted cowpox (to simplify, a virus related to smallpox that caused the corresponding disease in cows but led to a much milder illness in humans). In contrast, these populations hardly ever contracted smallpox.
💡👀🧒🧪Jenner hypothesized that infection with cowpox provided immunity to smallpox and did not waste time, proceeding with an ambitious and risky experiment… Initially, he collected samples from the skin lesions of a patient with cowpox and inoculated a child with it. The child developed a mild illness for a few days and fully recovered. Jenner did not stop there. Subsequently, he collected samples from the skin lesions of a patient with smallpox this time, and inoculated the same child.
😂⚖️☢️☣️📊Nowadays, Jenner would likely have been between a courtroom and prison at this stage, because clinical trials in humans require at least three prior trial phases and many years of laboratory research…
💣✅The child Jenner inoculated with the smallpox virus showed no symptoms… and Jenner concluded that infection with cowpox virus leads to full immunity against smallpox. The rest is history…
⏭🏆Fast-forward to today… the last case of smallpox worldwide was recorded in 1977 in Somalia, and in 1980 the World Health Organization declared the virus completely eradicated globally! Undoubtedly, one of the greatest victories ever achieved by human civilization in the field of Medicine.
😎🎖🌍The technique of active immunization through vaccines—simply stated, artificially activating the immune system so that it develops memory and, consequently, the body develops immunity to specific infectious microorganisms—represents one of the greatest success stories in the history of Medicine and Science in general.
😍👍👏🙏Edward Jenner, thank you for everything!
📖References
-Riedel S. Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2005 Jan;18(1):21-5. doi: 10.1080/08998280.2005.11928028. PMID: 16200144; PMCID: PMC1200696.
-Boylston A. The origins of inoculation. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 2012;105(7):309-313. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2012.12k044
-https://www.who.int/health-topics/smallpox