Smallpox has had a major impact on world history, not least because indigenous populations of regions where smallpox was non-native, such as the Americas and Australia, were rapidly and greatly reduced by smallpox (along with other introduced diseases) during periods of initial foreign contact, which helped pave the way for conquest and colonization.
Empires fall. It is believed that smallpox first incubated 10,000 years ago in northern Africa, spreading slowly to the rest of the ancient world. Repeat epidemics of the highly contagious virus — which caused a grotesque rash, fever and often blindness — began popping up a few millennia later.
Unfortunately, this global eradication campaign suffered from lack of funds, personnel, and commitment from countries, as well as a shortage of vaccine donations. Despite their best efforts, smallpox was still widespread in 1966, causing regular outbreaks in multiple countries across South America, Africa, and Asia.
One of the first methods for controlling the spread of smallpox was the use of variolation. Named after the virus that causes smallpox (variola virus), variolation is the process by which material from smallpox sores (pustules) was given to people who had never had smallpox.
In the Old World, the most common form of smallpox killed perhaps 30 percent of its victims while blinding and disfiguring many others. But the effects were even worse in the Americas, which had no exposure to the virus prior to the arrival of Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors.
Smallpox has had a major impact on world history, not least because indigenous populations of regions where smallpox was non-native, such as the Americas and Australia, were rapidly and greatly reduced by smallpox (along with other introduced diseases) during periods of initial foreign contact, which helped pave the ...
In the wake of the smallpox epidemics of the late 19th and early 20th century and the controversies they generated, Congress enacted what was called the Biologics Control Act, which lay the foundation for the vaccine safety regulations that are still in effect today.
The eradication of smallpox is therefore a major success story for global health for several reasons: it was a disease that was endemic – and caused high mortality rates – across all continents; but was also crucial to advances in the field of immunology as the smallpox vaccine was the first successful vaccine to ever ...
Smallpox and vaccination are intimately connected. Edward Jenner developed the first vaccine to prevent smallpox infections, and this success led to the global eradication of smallpox and the development of many more life-saving vaccines.
When smallpox came with the Europeans to America it impacted the Native Americans greatly. It killed millions of Native Americans and was so painful people could hardly move.
200 years ago, the seed of the Industrial Revolution dropped into the fertile soil created by smallpox vaccination and began to transform our lives. Wonderfully, it withstood the impact of wars and economic depressions, due to its ability to increase national prosperity whilst also broadening its reach.
Several biological reasons favored the eradication of smallpox, the most important of which were probably that recurrent infectivity did not occur, that there was no animal reservoir, and that an effective stable vaccine was available.
Smallpox was a suitable candidate for eradication for several reasons. The disease was passed directly between people, without an intervening vector, so there were no reservoirs. Its distinctive rash made it relatively straight- forward to diagnose, and survivors gained lifetime immunity.
What Might a Bioterrorist Attack with Smallpox Look Like? Most likely, if smallpox is released into the United States as a bioterrorist attack, public health authorities will find out once the first person sick with the disease goes to a hospital for treatment of an unknown illness.
The broader role of vaccines in general society Reduce healthcare burdens and costs. Prevent the development of antibiotic resistance by reducing the need for their use. Extend life expectancy. Make it safe to travel to different parts of the world.
Historically, the vaccine has been effective in preventing smallpox infection in 95% of those vaccinated. In addition, the vaccine was proven to prevent or substantially lessen infection when given within a few days after a person was exposed to the variola virus.
Jenner, a country physician, invented vaccination with cowpox to replace the fearful dangers of inoculation with smallpox. This development resulted in immunity to smallpox and ushered in the era of preventive measures for contagious diseases (World Health News.
Cruising the northwest coastline of America in 1792, Captain George Vancouver was troubled. Where, he wondered, were all the natives? The land was abundant, with a seemingly unlimited supply of salmon and fresh water, but there were strikingly few people.
The Program made steady progress toward ridding the world of this disease, and by 1971 smallpox was eradicated from South America, followed by Asia (1975), and finally Africa (1977).
Smallpox was a terrible disease. On average, 3 out of every 10 people who got it died. People who survived usually had scars, which were sometimes severe. One of the first methods for controlling smallpox was variolation, a process named after the virus that causes smallpox (variola virus).
The Intensified Eradication Program began in 1967 with a promise of renewed efforts. Laboratories in many countries where smallpox occurred regularly were able to produce more, higher-quality freeze-dried vaccine.
In late 1975, three-year-old Rahima Banu from Bangladesh was the last person in the world to have naturally acquired variola major. She was also the last person in Asia to have active smallpox. She was isolated at home with house guards posted 24 hours a day until she was no longer infectious. A house-to-house vaccination campaign within a 1.5-mile radius of her home began immediately. A member of the Smallpox Eradication Program team visited every house, public meeting area, school, and healer within 5 miles to ensure the illness did not spread. They also offered a reward to anyone who reported a smallpox case.
Maalin was isolated and made a full recovery. Maalin died of malaria on July 22, 2013, while working in the polio eradication campaign. Janet Parker was the last person to die of smallpox.
The establishment of the disease in Europe was of special importance, for this served as the endemic reservoir from which smallpox spread to other parts of the world, as an accompaniment of successive waves of European exploration and colonization.
Smallpox was externally brought to Australia. The first recorded outbreak, in April 1789, about 16 months after the arrival of the First Fleet, devastated the Aboriginal population. Governor Phillip said that about half of the people living around Sydney Cove died during the outbreak, while later estimates have been higher. There is an ongoing debate as part of the "History wars" concerning two main rival theories about how the disease first entered the continent. (Another hypothesis suggested that the French brought it in 1788, but the timeline does not fit.) The central hypotheses of these theories suggest that smallpox was transmitted to Indigenous Australians by either: 1 the First Fleet of British settlers to arrive in the Colony of New South Wales, who arrived in January 1788 (whether deliberately or accidentally); or 2 Makassan mariners visiting northern Australia.
Variolation was the sole method of protection against smallpox other than quarantine until Jenner's discovery of the inoculating abilities of cowpox against the smallpox virus in 1796. Efforts to protect populations against smallpox by way of vaccination followed for centuries after Jenner's discovery.
The practice of variolation (also known as inoculation) first came out of East Asia. First writings documenting variolation in China appear around 1500. Scabs from smallpox victims who had the disease in its mild form would be selected, and the powder was kept close to body temperature by means of keeping it close to the chest, killing the majority of the virus and resulting in a more mild case of smallpox. Scabs were generally used when a month old, but could be used more quickly in hot weather (15–20 days), and slower in winter (50 days). The process was carried out by taking eight smallpox scabs and crushing them in a mortar with two grains of Uvularia grandiflora in a mortar. The powder was administered nasally through a silver tube that was curved at its point, through the right nostril for boys and the left nostril for girls. A week after the procedure, those variolated would start to produce symptoms of smallpox, and recovery was guaranteed. In India, where the European colonizers came across variolation in the 17th century, a large, sharp needle was dipped into the pus collected from mature smallpox sores. Several punctures with this needle were made either below the deltoid muscle or in the forehead, and then were covered with a paste made from boiled rice. Variolation spread farther from India to other countries in south west Asia, and then to the Balkans.
Mexico, Central America, South America. Smallpox kills millions of native inhabitants of Mexico. Unintentionally introduced at Veracruz with the arrival of Panfilo de Narvaez on April 23, 1520 and was credited with the victory of Cortes over the Aztec empire at Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City) in 1521.
The whaler ship Delta brought smallpox to the Micronesian island of Pohnpei on 28 February 1854. The Pohnpeians reacted by first feasting their offended spirits and then resorted hiding. The disease eventually wiped out more than half the island's population. The deaths of chiefs threw Pohnpeian society into disarray, and the people started blaming the God of the Christian missionaries. The Christian missionaries themselves saw the epidemic as God's punishment for the people and offered the natives inoculations, though often withheld such treatment from the priests. The epidemic abated in October 1854.
After first contacts with Europeans and Africans, some believe that the death of 90–95% of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases. It is suspected that smallpox was the chief culprit and responsible for killing nearly all of the native inhabitants of the Americas.
Smallpox is believed to have first infected humans around the time of the earliest agricultural settlements some 12,000 years ago. No surviving evidence of it, however, predates the so-called New Kingdom of Egypt, which lasted from about 1570 B.C. to 1085 B.C. A few mummies from that era contain familiar-looking skin lesions.
The last reported U.S. case came in 1949. Spurred by two new technological advances—a heat-stable, freeze-dried vaccine and the bifurcated needle—the World Health Organization then launched a global immunization campaign in 1967 with the goal of wiping out smallpox once and for all.
Far more effective was inoculation, also called variolation , which involved taking pus or powdered scabs from patients with a mild case of the disease and inserting them into the skin or nose of susceptible, healthy people.
By that time, the contagious disease, caused by the variola virus, had spread all across Africa and Asia as well, prompting some cultures to worship special smallpox deities. In the Old World, the most common form of smallpox killed perhaps 30 percent of its victims while blinding and disfiguring many others.
It also devastated the Aztecs, killing, among others, the second-to-last of their rulers. In fact, historians believe that smallpox and other European diseases reduced the indigenous population of North and South America by up to 90 percent, a blow far greater than any defeat in battle.
and the Antonine Plague of A.D. 165 to 180, the later of which killed an estimated 3.5 million to 7 million people, including Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and hastened the decline of the Roman Empire .
DEA Picture Library/Getty Images. Knowing that no one can contract smallpox twice, survivors of the disease were often called upon to try and nurse victims back to health. Throughout much of the last millennium, this involved herbal remedies, bloodletting and exposing them to red objects.
The map shows the worldwide distribution of smallpox and the countries in which it was endemic in 1945. Source: CDC, photo credit Dr. Michael Schwartz. After a global eradication campaign that lasted more than 20 years, the 33rd World Health Assembly declares the world free of smallpox in 1980.
Smallpox spreads to Asia Minor, the area of present-day Turkey. The map shows the Ottoman Empire in 1801, which then extended from Turkey (Anatolia) to Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, as well as northern Africa and parts of Middle East.
Even though the British colonial rulers banned the worship of Shapona in 1907, worship of the deity continued. Source: CDC, photo credit James Gathany. European colonization and the African slave trade import smallpox into the Caribbean and Central and South America.
In 1796, Edward Jenner , an English doctor, shows the effectiveness of previous cowpox infection in protecting people from smallpox, forming the basis for vaccination. Edward Jenner (1749–1823). Photo courtesy of the National Library of Medicine. 20th Century.
A myth commonly believed around the world advocated that red light would cure smallpox. In Japan, families who fell sick with smallpox set up shrines to the “smallpox demon” in their homes with the hope they would appease the demon and be cured.
The course of the disease. Each case of smallpox arose from close contact with another case of the disease, usually by inhalation of virus that had been expelled in the breath or saliva droplets of an infected person.
In fatal cases, death frequently came after a week or two of illness, brought on by the toxic effects of huge quantities of virus in the blood and the inflammatory response of the body’s immune system. In nonfatal cases, the pustules dried up and formed scabs that, upon separation, left multiple pockmarked scars.
The first type of rash was clinic ally unimportant, but the deep red, hemorrhagic rash occurred in the most severe, usually fatal cases of the disease. Frequently such patients died before the true smallpox rash had time to develop, and the disease was not diagnosed.
The way smallpox epidemics were brought to an end was through vaccination, quarantine, and public health surveillance, as well as the natural course of the disease. In the early 20th century, there was a lot of distrust in public health measures, and much of that had some foundation in the political realities of public health at the time.
The victory over smallpox shows the beginning of more modern public health and can teach us about today’s COVID-19 pandemic, historian Michael Willrich argues. When the United States suffered a great wave of smallpox outbreaks at the turn of the 20th century, the public health field was in its infancy. Compulsory vaccinations were haphazard and ...
African Americans had really good reasons to be suspicious of white health officials; they had been subject to a kind of Jim Crow medicine for years. Christian scientists and other faith groups that believed in either natural healing or community or individual control over health decisions had strong opposition. Q.
The events of this time, known as the Progressive Era, paved the way for laws and regulations still in force today.
That’s because smallpox was endemic in England, meaning that a high percentage of British troops had already contracted the disease as children and now carried lifelong immunity.
Variolization still had a case fatality rate of 5 to 10 percent. And even if all went well, inoculated patients still needed a month to recover.
That’s why Washington eventually made the bold decision to inoculate all American troops who had never been sickened with smallpox at a time when inoculation was a crude and often deadly process. His gamble paid off. The measure staved off smallpox long enough to win a years-long fight with the British. In the process, Washington pulled ...
By the spring of 1778, the ranks of the Continental army swelled with smallpox-immune recruits ready to take the fight to the British. And while Washington’s risky decision to inoculate the whole army against smallpox didn’t win the war by itself, ...
pinterest-pin-it. A guide on smallpox to the people of New England, circa 1721. The National Library of Medicine. Fast forward to 1775, when Washington took the reins of a newly formed Continental Army laying siege to British-held Boston.
George Washington Had Contracted Smallpox in Barbados. The young George Washington and his ailing brother Lawrence resided in this historic plantation house, also known as Bush Hill House, for two months in 1751. In 1751, when Washington was 19 years old, he and his brother Lawrence sailed to Barbados in the hopes that the warm island air would ...
And while Washington’s risky decision to inoculate the whole army against smallpox didn’t win the war by itself, Fenn believes it deserves a place among the most important deciding factors in the American victory. “The general,” she writes in Pox Americana, “had outflanked his enemy.”.
Smallpox was finally controlled by the development of the world's first vaccine in the late 1700s, but fears linger that a few cells remaining in Petri dishes could be used as biological weaponry.
Empires fall. It is believed that smallpox first incubated 10,000 years ago in northern Africa, spreading slowly to the rest of the ancient world. Repeat epidemics of the highly contagious virus — which caused a grotesque rash, fever and often blindness — began popping up a few millennia later.
In 1796 a new discovery was made by Edward Jenner , a British doctor.
The history of smallpox extends into pre-history, with the disease probably emerging in human populations about 10,000 BC. The earliest credible evidence of smallpox is found in the Egyptian mummies of people who died some 3,000 years ago. Smallpox has had a major impact on world history, not least because indigenous populations of regions where smallpox was non-native, such as the Americas and Australia, were rapidly and greatly reduced by smallpox (along with other in…
It has been suggested that smallpox was a major component of the Plague of Athens that occurred in 430 BCE, during the Peloponnesian Wars, and was described by Thucydides.
Galen's description of the Antonine Plague, which swept through the Roman Empire in 165–180 CE, indicates that it was probably caused by smallpox. Returning soldiers picked up the disease in Seleucia (in modern Iraq), and brought it home with them to Syria and Italy. It raged for fifteen ye…
Smallpox is exogenous to Africa. One of the oldest records of what may have been an encounter with smallpox in Africa is associated with the elephant war circa AD 568 CE, when after fighting a siege in Mecca, Ethiopian troops contracted the disease which they carried with them back to Africa.
Arab ports in Coastal towns in Africa likely contributed to the importation of s…
After first contacts with Europeans and Africans, some believe that the death of 90–95% of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases. It is suspected that smallpox was the chief culprit and responsible for killing nearly all of the native inhabitants of the Americas. For more than 200 years, this disease affected all new world populations, mostly without intentional European transmission, from contact in the early 16th century until possibly …
There is evidence that smallpox reached the Philippine islands from the 4th century onwards – linked possibly to contact between South East Asians and Indian traders.
During the 18th century, there were many major outbreaks of smallpox, driven possibly by increasing contact with European colonists and traders. There were epidemics, for instance, in the Sultanate of Banjar (South Kalimantan), in 1734, 1750–51, 1764–65 and 1778–79; in the Sultanat…