The Scourge of Smallpox

The Scourge of Smallpox

• A deadly virus caused havoc on Earth for 3,000 years, with a 30% mortality rate among those infected.
• Survivors often suffered permanent scars and blindness.
• In 1735, smallpox wiped out one-third of Japan's population.
• After European colonization in the 1500s, the disease decimated 90% of the Native Tribal population in Mexico and America.
• During the 18th century, smallpox killed one in seven children born in Russia.
• The disease is estimated to have caused 5 million deaths each year, totaling 500 million in a century.
• Smallpox was known by various names, including Speckled Monster, the Red Plague, Pox, and Mata Lagna in India.
• The Variola virus, an Orthopox virus akin to Monkeypox and Cowpox, causes smallpox.
• Infection spread easily through respiratory droplets, saliva, skin rashes, and contaminated surfaces.
• Symptoms began like a cold/cough and progressed to rashes and boils across the body.
• Death occurred 8-16 days after infection, following headaches, vomiting, rashes, and fever.
• Children were particularly vulnerable, experiencing higher mortality rates.
• The origin of smallpox remains unknown, with potential links to early agriculture around 10,000 BC and transmission from domesticated animals in Africa.
• Evidence of smallpox dates back to 1156 BC, found on an ancient Egyptian Mummy.
• Ancient texts from India and China, including the Sanskrit text Susruta Samhita (6th century BC), mention the disease.
• People understood that survivors were immune, leading to the practice of inoculation.
• Inoculation involved infecting individuals with a small dose of the virus, originating in India or China.
• The Tikadaar Brahmins in 18th-century India used scabs from infected individuals to inoculate healthy people.
• Buddhist monks in Tibet collected scabs, powdered them, and blew the powder into the noses of healthy individuals in the 11th century.
• Inoculation had a 1%-2% mortality rate, lower than the 30% from natural infection.
• Inoculated individuals faced risks of death, permanent scars, and spreading the virus.

Edward Jenner and the First Vaccine

• Farmers in Gloucestershire, England, seemed immune to smallpox in the 18th century, sparking curiosity.
• In 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner investigated and learned that those who contracted Cowpox did not contract smallpox.
• Jenner hypothesized that cowpox could prevent smallpox.
• In May 1796, Jenner took pus from the cowpox of Sarah, and infected James (his gardener's son) with Cowpox to test his theory.
• The boy caught Cowpox but recovered; Jenner then infected him with smallpox, and he was immune.
• Jenner's experiment demonstrated that cowpox could prevent smallpox and could be spread human-to-human.
• This experiment led to the world's first vaccine.
• The word "vaccination" comes from the Latin word Vacca, meaning Cow.
• Vaccination was safer than inoculation, with a nearly negligible risk of death.

Acceptance and Eradication

• Jenner faced backlash and mockery when he presented his vaccine discovery.
• The Royal Society of London initially rejected his report.
• Many religious organizations opposed vaccines, considering them against God's plan.
• People feared turning into cows, and inoculation practitioners opposed vaccination because it affected their business.
• In 1853, England became the first country to mandate smallpox vaccination for children, leading to anti-vax movements.
• Jenner transported vaccines using strings soaked in pus, fluids in glass tubes, and infected children on ships.
• In 1800, the vaccine reached Canada using pus-soaked strings.
• The first Cowpox vaccine in India reached through the Middle East in 1802.
• India launched the National Smallpox Eradication Programme in 1962, however vaccine coverage was difficult.
• In 1974, the worst smallpox epidemic was seen in India, and 86% of the cases of Smallpox in the world were from India at the time.
• Reasons for this were due to India's large population, constant migration, low media coverage, protestors, citizens who were superstitious, and painful vaccinations.
• In 1971, the WHO and the Indian Government collaborated to come up with a new plan to eradicate this virus from India.
• Posters were put up everywhere, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked the citizens to cooperate, even offering money for reporting cases of smallpox.
• In 1975, the last case of smallpox was seen in India.
• In 1977, the last case of natural infection by smallpox occurred in Somalia.
• In 1978, the last person died of the disease after accidental exposure in a laboratory in England.
• The World Health Organisation officially declared smallpox eradicated from the world in 1979.
• Today, samples of the virus are stored in two highly secured laboratories in the US and Russia for research.
• Each year, 5 million lives are estimated to be saved because of the smallpox vaccine and the disease's eradication.