What is the history of the first vaccine?
The first scientific attempts to control an infectious disease can be attributed to Edward Jenner in 1796. He inoculated an 8-year-old boy with cowpox (vaccinia), giving the boy protection against subsequent exposure to virulent smallpox.
The history of the first vaccine can be traced back to the late 18th century when a British physician named Edward Jenner developed a vaccination against smallpox, which was killing millions of people throughout Europe at that time. Jenner observed that milkmaids who had contracted a mild form of cowpox were immune to smallpox. He hypothesized that exposure to cowpox would provide immunity against smallpox.
In 1796, Jenner conducted an experiment on an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps. He inoculated the boy with cowpox and then exposed him to smallpox, but the boy did not get sick. Jenner repeated this experiment on other subjects and demonstrated that cowpox could provide immunity against smallpox. He published his findings in 1798 in a book entitled “An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae”.
Jenner’s discovery was quickly accepted and mass vaccination campaigns against smallpox were launched throughout Europe. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that smallpox killed 300 million people in the 20th century alone. Thanks to Jenner’s discovery, smallpox was eradicated in 1979, making it the first disease to be completely eradicated from the world through vaccination.
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