Smallpox Vaccine

Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the variola virus. People who had the
disease had a fever and a unique skin rash. Smallpox was one of the deadliest diseases the
world had ever known - 3 out of every 10 people with the disease died. Altogether about 300
million people died from the virus in the 20th century alone!

In 1796 Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids who had cowpox (a mild disease caught from
cattle) did not go on to catch smallpox. So he conducted an experiment to see if having caught
cowpox did protect against being infected with smallpox. On the 14th of May, Jenner found a
milkmaid, Sarah Nelmes, who had contracted cowpox and used some of the matter from the
sores on her hands to inoculate an 8-year-old boy named James Phipps. James became
slightly ill over the next nine days but had fully recovered by the tenth day. On the 1st of July,
Jenner inoculated James again, but this time with smallpox. Jenner was pleased to see that
James never developed any of the symptoms of the deadly disease.

Following more testing of his theory, he published all his findings in a

book titled An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae
Vaccine. Jenner's findings went on to support the development of the
smallpox vaccine, which led to the virus being wiped out across the
globe. To date, it is the only human disease to have been successfully
eradicated by vaccination.
 Improved Nursing Techniques
The Crimean War, a war between the British Empire and the Russian Empire, broke out in
1853. By 1854 the British had suffered huge losses with over 18 thousand soldiers admitted to
hospitals. The hospitals were overcrowded and understaffed with patients living in appalling
conditions. The hygiene of the hospitals was neglected, resulting in more of the patients dying
from illness rather than from their battle wounds. Secretary of War, Sidney Herbert, saw that an
urgent change was required to save his men.

He contacted Florence Nightingale to put together a team of nurses to travel to Crimea to

improve the care that the patients were receiving. When she arrived with her team of 34 nurses,
they were horrified by what they found. The patients had not been kept clean and the hospital
wards were filthy, filled with rats and other bugs. Many soldiers were infected with cholera and
typhoid while in hospital. Nightingale and her team enlisted the help of the least ill patients and
ensured that every inch of the hospital was scrubbed clean. She ensured that the patients had
care 24 hours a day and would personally check on them throughout the night, which is how
she received her nickname ‘The lady with the lamp’.

Florence ordered the building of a kitchen to prepare better food for the patients, making sure
that the food met their dietary requirements. She also had a laundry built to make sure that the
patients always had clean linen. To help with the soldiers' mental health, Nightingale started a
classroom and library. Not only did it take the patients' minds off their injury it also kept them
occupied and entertained during their stay. All the changes made reduced the hospital death rate
by two thirds.
Florence was passionate about making changes
for all patients in all hospitals, so she published
all her findings of improving hospital care in a
book entitled Notes on Matters Affecting the
Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration
of the British Army.

This book served as a guide for other hospitals

and nurses. In 1860, she paid for the building
of St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale
Training School for Nurses. Florence
Nightingale had turned nursing into an
honourable profession, and unlike people's
attitude when Florence was young, young
women from all classes were now encouraged
to become nurses.

Florence Nightingale
 Linking Illness and Microbes
– The Germ Theory
French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur, while investigating why sugar
beets had spoilt at a distillery, discovered that organisms in the air were
responsible for fermentation and spoiling of products.

English surgeon Joseph Lister, invented antiseptic medicine

using the findings of Pasteur as a starting point for his
research. He ensured that surgeons started disinfecting their
hands, gowns, masks and their instruments before surgery.
Carbolic acid had been introduced to clean and sanitise
sewers and Lister was sure that carbolic acid also had the
potential to help keep patients safe from infection.

He introduced it as a spray to reduce airborne

germs during surgery and on dressings for
wounds after surgery. All these changes in
medicine led to a decrease in surgical deaths
by up to 45%.
Louis Pasteur
English surgeon Joseph Lister, invented antiseptic medicine using the findings of
Pasteur as a starting point for his research. He ensured that surgeons started
disinfecting their hands, gowns, masks and their instruments before surgery.
Carbolic acid had been introduced to clean and sanitise sewers and Lister was sure
that carbolic acid also had the potential to help keep patients safe from infection.

He introduced it as a spray to reduce airborne germs

during surgery and on dressings for wounds after
surgery. All these changes in medicine led to a decrease
in surgical deaths by up to 45%.

German physician Robert Koch invented a solid

medium for growing cultures and dyeing
techniques to colour microbes growing on the
cultures. He was then able to view and identify the
organisms that cause tuberculosis, cholera, anthrax
spores and the bacteria that cause septicaemia
using high-powered microscopes. Once doctors
could accurately identify the microbes, they were
able to administer better treatments.
Joseph Lister
Jon Snow was an English doctor who
researched cholera in London. He discovered
that cholera spread through water
contaminated by sewage. Based on his
findings, Snow recommended that water be
filtered and boiled before use. He published his
findings in an essay in 1849 entitled On the
Mode of Communication of Cholera. Jon also
fought to ensure that the people of London had
access to water that was not contaminated.
Together, these groundbreaking doctors all
agreed on the 'germ theory’. This theory states
that certain diseases are caused by
microorganisms invading the body from
outside instead of from inside, as had been the
theory before. They all focused their research
based on this theory.
 Discovery Chicken Cholera
and Anthrax Vaccine
Chicken cholera, caused by Pasteurella multocida zoonotic bacterium, is a highly
contagious and lethal disease that affects chickens and other poultry. The epidemics
of this disease wiped out poultry farms in the 1800s and caused major food supply
issues for communities. Pasteur and his team discovered the vaccine against
Chicken cholera almost by accident in 1880. Charles Chamberland, part of Pasteur's
team, accidentally left one of the vaccine cultures out over the weekend during
summer. When he looked again at the sample when he returned to work, he noticed
that the bacteria had lost their ability to spread the disease.

So he tried inoculating the

chickens with this sample
and was surprised to
discover that these chickens
did not die and did not catch
the disease again.
Anthrax, caused by the infection of Bacillus anthracis, affects cattle. Once the
cattle eat the spores while grazing, the bacteria quickly multiply and produce a
toxin that kills the animal and poisons the meat. Louis Pasteur and his team worked
to create a vaccine for anthrax to try and save the cattle.

They gave 25 cattle two shots of an anthrax

vaccine that they had created with a
weakened anthrax bacteria. Then they
injected them with live anthrax bacteria. The
cattle which had been inoculated with the
weakened strain did not get ill.

Both these vaccines changed farming and helped

secure food supply for people around the world.