How Smallpox Was Conquered

Farina Afrin Malik

Freshman

School of Life Sciences

Independent University, Bangladesh

March 23rd, 2017

From the day we are born and sometimes prior to birth, we humans have had one constant companion: disease. However for as long as disease has existed so has our ability to survive despite them. Over the centuries, by sheer perseverance humans have discovered many ways of treating these diseases. We have made great advancements in our methods of treatment and have attained means of curing and preventing innumerable diseases. One such illness that we have actually managed to successfully eradicate is smallpox.

Smallpox is known to be caused by a virulent form of the Variola virus. The symptoms of this disease include small rash-like bumps forming all over the body. Some may confuse smallpox to be chickenpox, as their symptoms are quite similar, but their most distinct difference would be the fatality rate. Smallpox had a 30% death rate, unlike chickenpox which has a less than 1% mortality rate. Smallpox also often resulted in lifelong scarring and disfiguration whereas chickenpox causes mild scarring which would heal with time. 

Public domain

An 18^th century English scientist, Edward Jenner, was the mastermind behind the vaccine; he discovered that milkmaids who were infected with a milder disease called cowpox (a viral disease which commonly occurs in cows) did not suffer from smallpox. He transferred some of the fluid found in the pustules in the skin from the cowpox-infected person to a healthy individual, and later challenged him with smallpox. The disease was effectively prevented, suggesting that exposure to cowpox had somehow made the individual immune to, or protected against smallpox. Edward Jenner coined the term vaccinia to denote cowpox, and this became the origin for the term vaccine.

Since Jenner lived in a time with much more lax ethical standards in society, he was able to carry out human testing. Today however, animal testing of some form is carried out before human trials since it is considered unethical and risky to test on humans first. 

Jenner's original discovery led to the development and standardization of a commercial vaccine against smallpox. To continue the work started by Jenner, many individuals all over the world collaborated to establish The Smallpox Eradication Programme that began its work in 1966. One of their main techniques that helped in conquering this disease was the “ring vaccination” method. This particular form of vaccination involved administering the vaccine to all the individuals living in a radius surrounding an infected person so that the disease would not spread beyond this area. Infected and exposed individuals were isolated or quarantined to minimize spread.

As part of the worldwide eradication effort, the exact same methods of treatment were conducted in Bangladesh during the 1970s, by the American doctor, D.A. Henderson who traveled across the country examining every case of smallpox and preventing it from being spread to neighboring villages. Once all individuals had been vaccinated, he offered rewards to anyone who could bring forth a patient who had acquired smallpox. Near the end of the decade, the disease was declared by the WHO (World Health Organization) to have been successfully eradicated. 

From this success we can gather that with large-scale collaborative effort, it may be possible to replicate this for other pathogens. It is also quite likely that it may happen sooner than we expect, as recent updates state that polio and measles are on the road to eradication as well.

Farina is a Freshman at IUB who aspires to be a biomedical scientist. In her free time, she enjoys delving into the sciences of baking and imaginative fiction.