Heroes and Cultural Identity Project
SCE Heroes - Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner
The discoverer of Vaccination
Edward
Jenner was an 18th C doctor who was the first to properly develop the
now common process of vaccination. It was while working in his practice
that he heard a tale of cowgirls contracting cowpox and then being immune
to the very deadly smallpox virus. After carrying out several experiments
to test his theories, and having the results prove successful he went
to the medical authorities with his findings. After much deliberation
they were accepted by his peers. In 1840 after his death the new process
of vaccination was made available to the whole population free of charge,
and the previous process of variolation was banned. This process was developed
and refined over the next centuries and is now the basis of all immunisation
throughout the world.
In 1967 the world health organisation started an intensified programme
to wipe the smallpox virus for good. This process was to rely on mass
vaccination and required 100% of the population to be vaccinated. Prior
to this 80% was thought to be the level for a good vaccination process,
but this was still not enough to completely stop the deadly smallpox virus.
In Western Europe, North America and Japan the disease had already been
eradicated and the W.H.O. took the focus to Africa and the rest of the
developing countries throughout the world that had endemic levels of the
disease. Through persistence and a new delivery technique the process
began to work and in 1977 the last case of smallpox was reported in Somalia.
Success!! Edward Jenner's first works brought about the total eradication
of Smallpox, so far the only disease to have been completely wiped out,
and now the only stores of the disease are in research facilities in the
U.S.A and Russia, that however is a totally different story.
George Barr is a science student following a one year university access course in biological sciences.
