Smallpox Vaccine China, The History Of Vaccines And How They Work Planet Money Npr

Smallpox was a deadly viral disease that marked survivors with scars and disfigurations.

Tetanus vaccine clean wound. The first precursor to a modern vaccination however occurred in china. The chinese were the first to develop a primitive form of a vaccine around the 10th century according to the nhsknown as variolation or inoculation the method was developed to prevent smallpox a destructive disease that frequently plagued europe and asia in the middle ages. Several accounts from the 1500s describe smallpox inoculation as practiced in china and india one is referred to in volume 6 of joseph needhams science and civilisation in chinaglynn and glynn in the life and death of smallpox note that in the late 1600s emperor kang hsi who had survived smallpox as a child had his children inoculated.

Highly infectious and often fatal smallpox was the scourge of the. The first successful vaccine in modern history was the smallpox vaccine developed by edward jenner in late 18th century britain. But it was also one of the first diseases to be controlled by a vaccine which led to its eradication in 1980.

Smallpox infectious disease that begins with fever and headache and proceeds to an eruption of the skin that leaves pockmarks. A method of inducing immunity known as inoculation insufflation or variolation was practiced before the development of a modern vaccine and likely occurred in africa and china well before the practice arrived in europe. China knew the disease well.

For centuries smallpox was one of the worlds most dreaded diseases. Accounts from india and china showed primitive vaccine utilization as early as the 1500s made from ground. That method involved grinding up smallpox scabs.

Note that the source uses the term vaccination here which is incorrect. Edward jenner takes on smallpox. One way the chinese may have practiced inoculation also known as variolation was by scratching matter from a smallpox sore into a healthy persons arm.

The mortality of the severe form of smallpoxvariola majorwas very high without vaccination up to 35 in some outbreaks. A special feature of the campaign in shanghai was the introduction of a national vaccination certificate to prevent export of smallpox from the city by the 2 800 000 persons who moved in and out of shanghai each week by rail bus or boateradication was followed up by a programme of vaccination of all infants with revaccination at 6 12 and. Over a hundred pages are devoted to smallpox alone.