Smallpox viruses and anthrax bacteria can become weapons today. The more dangerous that it is not known who has it and where it will be used. The world remembered smallpox, the danger of which has long been averted.
Almost all Poles in their 30s still have traces of the compulsoryvaccinationof smallpox on their shoulders, introduced by the World He alth Organization (WHO) in 1967. Children were vaccinated three times: before graduation 1 year old, then at the age of 7 and 14. Additional vaccinations were made to people exposed to contact with the sick (e.g. he alth care workers traveling to another continent). The global campaign to eradicate smallpox was successful and vaccination was discontinued after several years.
Smallpox: From India to Mexico
Smallpoxfirst appeared around 2000 BC in India, and then went to China and Egypt. One of the oldest victims known to us from history was Pharaoh Ramses V (smallpox defeated him in 1100 BCE). It was probably moved to Europe by Roman troops around 164, after the conquests on the Euphrates. It was there, in Selenia, during the sacking of the temple of Apollo, a tightly closed chest was found, in which the plague venom was supposed to be located. These were most likely contaminated clothes of smallpox patients.
Until the end of the 13th century, waves of disease swept across Europe many times. In turn, the Europeans transferred the disease to the American continent. Between 1519 and 1521, when the Spaniards under the leadership of Herman Cortez, one third of the indigenous people died of smallpox.
The peak of the epidemic in Europe fell in the 18th century. About 10,000 people died annually. people (it accounted for almost 10% of all deaths). Among others, he died of smallpox. King Louis XV of France. In those who recovered, the disease left visible traces. In those days, even ugly women were considered beauties, as long as they were not "pockmarked", that is, had no visible scars on the skin, the so-called beaks after illness.
Smallpox symptoms and treatment
Smallpox (variola vera) started similarly to the flu: fever, chills, pharyngitis, muscle aches. The only less common symptom was a smell from the mouth, similar to that of carcass, as the old doctors called it. It was difficult at this stagediagnose. Only red lumps on the face, scalp, torso and limbs did not raise any doubts. After 6 days, they turned into vesicles, and these turned into pimples with a characteristic hollow. The lesions were accompanied by severe itching. Around day 14, the pustules dried into scabs, which fell off around day 20, leaving scars. If the patient couldn't resist scratching, the scars were deeper.
The pox was infected by airborne droplets. The disease hatched for 12-18 days. The term " smallpox " refers to a severe variety in which the scabs have a dark, almost black color.
Bubbles have been treated for centuries as a result of the "boiling" of the organism. In 1665, when the first intravenous injections were introduced, Johann Major, a professor of medicine from Kiel, tried to suppress this "boiling" by injecting the sick with a dilute solution of ammonia or sulfur derivatives. Phlebotomy, enemas, and sometimes … cooling drinks and baths, tar water, mercury, and musk talismans were used quite commonly in the treatment of smallpox. The poorer patients were isolated in the leprosy of leprosy epidemics.
In 1980, the World He alth Organization announced that vaccinations prevented smallpox from occurring in the world. The virus was left behind in only two laboratories, in the US and the USSR, without the expectation that more than 20 years later the specter of bioterrorism would appear. Last year, US intelligence revealed that 3 countries suspected of having the smallpox virus: Iraq, North Korea and France. After September 11, 2001, a discussion began as to whether vaccination should be resumed. If only to prevent hysteria, if the pox virus was found somewhere. People's immunity to infection with it decreases year by year. However, research in England found that 18 percent. Its residents who were vaccinated in the past are still immune to smallpox. American scientists are working on a tablet that destroys the virus of this disease. They are currently researching mice.
Smallpox vaccine from … cow
The first vaccinations were used by the Chinese in the years 1000 - 1100. The scabs were scraped, dried, rubbed into a powder, mixed with herbs and stored in a tight seal to weaken the effect of the venom. Years later, the powder was rubbed into he althy people, usually into the nose. Unfortunately, some of the vaccinated people died. In India, the lymph of sick people was used, which was soaked in bundles of wool, dried them, and a year later, such a vaccine was administered to, for example, girls delivered to the harems. In 1720, similar methods were introduced in Europe.
In England, however, a village doctor Edward Jenner (1749-1823) noted that smallpox did not affect women whowhile the cows were milked, they became infected themselves with the so-called cowpox. In 1796, Dr. Jenner conducted an experiment on eight-year-old James Phipps. He cut his skin slightly and transferred the contents of the follicle of a person suffering from "cowpox" into his blood. The boy had a mild illness and was infected by Jenner with smallpox. And he did not get sick. When Jenner was about to publish the results of his discovery, famous medics at the Royal College in London warned him that he would compromise himself. However, the "Study of the Cause and Effect of Cowpox" generated great interest in Europe. Since then, vaccination called vaccinia (from Latin vacca - cow) was considered compulsory in most European countries, except… England.
Smallpox in Poland
Vaccinations were introduced by the niece of King Stanisław August - Urszula Mniszchów née Zamoyska. The king himself discussed this topic at his Thursday dinners. In 1811, the authorities of the Duchy of Warsaw issued a decree vaccinating children in the first year of life against smallpox. Earlier, on May 17, 1808, on Jenner's birthday, the Institute of Vaccination of Protective Pox was opened in Vilnius, and in 1809 - a similar one in Warsaw. In a letter to one of the initiators of the Institute in Vilnius, Józef Frank, Jenner mentioned the accusations of his opponents. They accused him of turning people into cattle; They said that one of the girls after vaccination roared like a cow, and one boy grew horns. The author of the critical brochure even stated that "whoever fights against smallpox vaccinations does a great service to humanity." As the years passed, when the number of people suffering from smallpox was declining rapidly, it was noticed that Dr. Jenner had done the greatest service to humanity.
Vaccination was in force in most European countries from the beginning of the 19th century, thanks to which in the middle of the 20th century it was practically on our continent. smallpox was forgotten. However, it came unexpectedly in May 1963. A patient came to one of the hospitals in Wrocław with symptoms that resembled malaria or chicken pox. Soon the attendant and other patients who were taking care of him began to have similar symptoms, some of them were in a serious condition. You can imagine the surprise of doctors when they started to suspect that it was smallpox. The first patient, it turned out, came from India. He survived. The wardroom died. In addition, 5 more people died, two of which had never been vaccinated against smallpox. A total of 99 people fell ill then. The epidemic was under control within a few weeks.