The History of Vaccines

1587 Words4 Pages

A vaccine is a modern type of medicine that has been added to the world early on in life. It is mainly called a modern medicine because of how many lives it has saved throughout the world. Vaccines go back to Ancient Greece, where they have been believed to originate. There is an extraordinary number of different vaccines and reasons why they exist. The word vaccine is latin and came from “vacca” for cow where a tested person with cow pox is now immune to smallpox.
Edward Jenner, who is a British physician from Berkeley ,England started to discover vaccinations. He began to discover it by the use of cowpox in order to protect the disease of smallpox. Jenner was born May 14, 1794 and when he turned 14 he was sent to a local surgeon to be trained in London to be a doctor. He returned to Berkeley and became a doctor in 1772. Jenner was more into experiences than a surgeon. When Jenner sent some of his experiences into the Royal Society, they turned him down because his ideas did not have enough proof to his experiments. Shortly, a year later he decided to try harder to have more proof, and he published his experience of the cow pox that was connected to smallpox. He took pus from a cow pox lesion and affected it into an eight year old boy, James Phipps. Phipps was strongly immune to smallpox because of Jenners idea. He relied on the knowledge and farming communities to help with his discovery.
Smallpox is an highly contagious skin disease where it can result in death quickly. It has been believed to start in Africa and spread through India and China. The smallpox virus can enter the bloodstream within three to four days of having an interaction with the virus. It is mainly caused by one of the largest animal viruses called the...

... middle of paper ...

... Control and Prevention. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, 04 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 May 2014. .
"Polio." Symptoms. Mayo Clinic. Web. 19 May 2014. .
"Ross and the Discovery That Mosquitoes Transmit Malaria Parasites." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 08 Feb. 2010. Web. 19 May
2014. .
Sass, Edmund. "Polio History Timeline." Polio History Timeline. 11 Jan. 2005. Web. 18 May 2014.
.
"Vaccines." Comptons. 2005 ed. Vol. 24. Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, 2005. 264-66. Print. U-v
"Where Malaria Occurs." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8 Feb. 2010. Web. 19 May 2014. .
"1918 Flu Pandemic." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 20 May 2014.
.

More about The History of Vaccines

Open Document