History of vaccines: from cowpox to rabies

Vaccines are one of the most important prevention against highly contagious diseases. There have been many different kinds of vaccines produced to prevent you from getting sick. But do you know how the vaccine was discovered?

Era before vaccines

The term vaccine was only known in 1796 when the first smallpox vaccine was discovered. Prior to that, efforts to prevent infection by a disease had been carried out since ancient Greece, 429 BC. At that time, a Greek historian discovered that people who had recovered from smallpox had never been infected with smallpox for a second time.

In 900, the Chinese discovered an ancient form of vaccination, namely variolation. Variolation is the process of transferring the smallpox virus from the lesions of people with smallpox to healthy people, with the aim of preventing smallpox infection. Variolation began to spread to European soil in the 18th century when there was a smallpox epidemic. With variolation, the death rate from smallpox can be reduced at that time.

Edward Jenner, cowpox, and variola

The first vaccine was made for variola or smallpox which was designed to prevent the very deadly variola disease. The vaccine was made by a doctor named Edward Jenner in Berkeley, a rural area in England in 1796.

By taking the cowpox lesion from the hand of a milkmaid, dr. Jenner infected an 8 year old boy, James Phipps, with the cowpox virus. Six weeks later dr. Jenner performed variolation (the process of transferring pus from the active lesion of a person with variola to the arm of another healthy person using a needle) to 2 points on Phipps' arm with variola virus.

As a result, it turned out that the boy was not infected with Variola and remained healthy even though the variolation procedure was repeated for the second time.

How did dr. Jenner got the idea for a vaccine?

The interesting thing is how can a doctor living in a rural area find the concept of a vaccine in the midst of limited facilities? At first dr. Jenner pays attention to local residents, the majority of whom work as breeders. Those who milk cows are often infected with cowpox (cow pox) which causes pustular lesions on the hands and arms.

It turned out that those who had been infected with cowpox became immune to variola infection which at that time there was an outbreak of variola in the village. With this experience, dr. Jenner begins the world's first clinical research. The research provided an alternative to the variolation that had been done in Asia in the 1600s and in Europe and America in the early 1700s.

Why is it called a vaccine?

The term vaccine is used by dr. Jenner because this substance comes from cowpox, where cow in Latin is vacca. The term vaccine refers to the variola vaccine until in 1885 Louis Pasteur, a chemist, discovered a vaccine for rabies. Since that time, the term vaccine has become more general, namely a suspension containing microorganisms that have been weakened or deactivated, which functions to stimulate immunity and prevent infection of a disease.

Success in preventing various diseases around the world

Since then, vaccines have continued to develop and have become one of the main pillars for preventing infectious diseases. One of the greatest signs of vaccine success was when WHO succeeded in eliminating smallpox by expanding the vaccination coverage for smallpox throughout the world in 1956.

In 1980 smallpox was finally declared eradicated, one of the greatest achievements in medicine. Apart from smallpox, vaccines for several other diseases have been found, such as measles, polio, pertussis, diphtheria, and tetanus.

Judging from history, the purpose of making vaccines is none other than to save humanity from a deadly infectious disease such as smallpox. Do not let negligence and unclear information make us afraid to vaccinate.

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