part 2: prevention of disease

Question 1

smallpox

Answer 1

• disease that caused severe rashes all over body
• highly infections
• passed on by coughing, sneezing, touching
• mortality rate of 30%
• even if survived, often left with long-term effects e.g scarring, joint pain, blindness

Question 2

inoculation

Answer 2

• 1718 lady mary montagu had her son inoculated against small pox in turkey
• involved giving him a small amount of pus from smallpox victim which protected them
• promoted on return to england
• risky as might contract full-blown disease or not given enough they wouldn’t develop immunity

Question 3

edward jenner

Answer 3

• english country doctor born in 1749
• heard milkmaids claim they wouldn’t catch smallpox as they had already been infected with cowpox
• decided to test theory
• in 1796 he took cowpox pus from a milkmaid and smeared it into a small cut in arm of a boy, james phipps, who became mildly ill with cowpox
• then gave him pus from smallpox and he didn’t become ill

Question 4

jenner further work

Answer 4

• carried out more experiments
• tested vaccination technique 16 times, all successful
• published ‘an inquiry into the causes and effects of the varioae vaccine’
• awarded £30,000 by gov as they confirmed how effective it was
• however couldn’t prove why

Question 5

opposition to jenner and vaccination

Answer 5

• couldn’t prove how it work as no knowledge about germs
• doctors profited off inoculation
• believed disease sent by god so vaccine interfered with god’s will
• worked by giving people an animal disease, felt it wasn’t safe and would grow horns

Question 6

significance of jenner

Answer 6

• people protected against deadly disease
• massively reduced mortality rates
• 1853 law made it compulsory for all newborn babies
• 1967 WHO launched a plan to eradicate smallpox and achieved in 1980
• encouraged research to find other vaccines