HIST 123 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Smallpox Vaccine, Scarlet Fever, Variolation
29 Nov 2018
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Document Summary
1/3 of all childhood deaths in 17 th and 18 th c. europe from smallpox. The history is not neatly told in a particular moment in time but better to look at particular diseases. Today: start w smallpox and then look at ditheria and tb vaccine. Orthopox: cowpox, smallpox, monkeypox are all different, but overlapping immunities. Scarlet fever: problem is the absence of overlapping immunity. Smallpox advantage: you do have overlapping immunity, leads to vaccine. Key to development of an effective vaccine: inoculation or variolation (specific to smallpox bc variola is the name of smallpox virus) Pus extracted and put directly in skin or scars, nostrils. Mild case followed producing immunity from further attacks. Prior to 18 th century: inoculation was a folk practice, gets picked up in 18 th c, but bc of the way smallpox is breaking out you have greater interest in it particularly among aristocrats.
