Buddhist monks drank snake venom to confer immunity to snake bites, 17th century China smeared cowpox onto a skin tear to become immune to smallpox and in 1749 the Jenner of Jenners was born.
It was 1796 and there was an outbreak of the then deadly smallpox. Scientist Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids who contracted cowpox were immune to the smallpox infection. Once observed, he took the step that started it all. By placing a sample of the pus-filled skin from cowpox – an infected milkmaids hand under the skin of a young boy Mr. Jenner did what we experience when offering our upper arms for routine injections from infancy, inoculation. The boy was inoculated once in May and again in July and then became immune to lethal smallpox.
“All consideration, all enthusiasm for a system, can vanish if by its adoption the life of a single individual is threatened”. This remark by Dr. Chappon was what Mr. Jenner had to fight against as his method of smallpox eradication was not seen as a revolutionary success by everyone. Dr. Chappon was arguing against a method that would eventually save millions of lives but his intention had notable significance. That is why we have so many stages in place for clinical trials that produce new drugs and vaccines.
In addition to the intellectual circle of fire, a strong socio-cultural boundary arose surrounding the use of bovine material as means of vaccination. Even though India was once of the most heavily ravaged places on the globe by smallpox, Hindus, who consider cows to be sacred found their use for this medical purpose to be abhorrent. Only through persistent outreach by public health officials and further development of the vaccine, the vast majority of the Indian population was vaccinated, and eventually, smallpox was eradicated globally.
Many, many failures eventually lead to a miraculous success. Each observation, experiment, and question added a new dimension to the endless web that science is composed of. The vaccine against smallpox, despite its challenges and backlash, served as an inspiration for a new era of medicine.
Science is not a linear process but it can be affectionately literal. For coming this far, here is a titbit to keep for lifetimes. The word vaccine originates from the Latin word for cow, which is Vacca, and for cowpox which is vaccinia. Therefore, Mr. Jenner decided to call his cowpox-related ‘inoculation’ procedure Vaccination.
‘Une maladie, un vaccin’
For each disease a vaccine. Through the centuries from rabies to the Coronavirus, the practice of making a vaccine to curb its spread and mitigate its harm began with the valiance shown by Edward Jenner to try the new, by Dr. Chappon to question the unknown, and by the Hindus to accept change for the greater good. With the discoveries made, questions answered and trust ensured, today we can be live on our web, prepared to ensure survival against the next predator that comes our way. With all my appreciation I would like to declare that I am immensely proud of this human achievement from our past to our future.
By Rtr. Amrah Izadeen
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