Month: September 2022

THE NEW BLACK DEATH. “By the seventeenth century [smallpox] had replaced the plague as Europe's most devastating and feared disease." Its effects were dramatic and, since it was not limited to any particular risk group or risk behaviors, it threatened virtually everyone. No one was safe from its scourges. In fact, before the practice of vaccination became common, "almost everyone eventually contracted the disease." It was common enough that a proverb in Jenner's time declared that "From smallpox and love but few remain free." https://lnkd.in/ettvWHm View in LinkedIn

BIOLOGICAL WARFARE. “During the French-Indian War (1754–1767), Sir Jeffrey Amherst, the commander of the British forces in North America, suggested the deliberate use of smallpox to diminish the American Indian population hostile to the British.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

VARIOLATION. “Inoculation, hereafter referred to as variolation, was likely practiced in Africa, India, and China long before the 18th century, when it was introduced to Europe.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

TENTH CENTURY SMALLPOX VACCINES. “In 429 BCE, Greek historian Thucydides recorded that people who survived the smallpox epidemic in Athens were safe from re-infection. 900-1000 AD. 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 NHS. Known as variolation or inoculation, the method was developed to prevent smallpox.” https://lnkd.in/ezcRH6N View in LinkedIn

NASAL DRY POWDER VARIOLATION. “Chinese physicians discovered that when healthy people were exposed to smallpox scab tissue, they were less likely to get infected with the disease later on (or if they did, it was a much milder, less dangerous version). The most common form of inoculation in China was to crush smallpox scabs into powder, then breathe it in through the nose.” Achieved through the nasal mucosa. https://lnkd.in/ezcRH6N View in LinkedIn

SMALLPOX VARIOLATION “may have developed independently in China and India, because different routes of inoculation, nasal and cutaneous respectively, were used in these countries. It was said to have been introduced into Egypt by the Mamelukes in the 13th century, and was known in North and western Africa, at least from the late 17th century.” https://lnkd.in/edjPjCH View in LinkedIn

FIRST WESTERN ADVOCATE. “In 1715, Montagu had gone through her own bout of smallpox, and had been disfigured as a result. After learning about inoculation during her time in Turkey, she was determined to protect her six-year-old son from the disease through inoculation.” The vaccination occurred on March 1718, followed also successfully with her four year old daughter. https://lnkd.in/ezcRH6N View in LinkedIn

PRISONER TRIALS. “Lady Montague had Charles Maitland inoculate her 4-year-old daughter in the presence of physicians of the royal court. Charles Maitland was then granted the royal license to perform a trial of variolation on six prisoners in Newgate on August 9, 1721. The prisoners were granted the king's favor if they submitted to this experiment.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn

UNCONTROLLED EXPERIMENT. “This experiment involved testing variolation on six prisoners, three men and three women, in Newgate jail in 1721, and the purpose of the test, at first, was solely to determine the safety of the practice of variolation. This experiment, performed of course with no control group, offered the six prisoners their full freedom on the sole condition that they submit to the experiment of variolation.” http://www.bioethicscourse.info/jotsite/jot-chp2.html View in LinkedIn

TRIALS ON ORPHAN CHILDREN. “All prisoners survived the experiment, and those exposed to smallpox later proved to be immune. In the months following this very first trial, Maitland repeated the experiment on orphaned children, again with success.” https://lnkd.in/eQfnZZv View in LinkedIn