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#smallpox

2 public questions tagged with this topic.

Vaccine

Edward Jenner used material from which disease to immunize against smallpox?

Edward Jenner utilized material from cowpox, a mild zoonotic orthopoxvirus infection naturally occurring in cattle, to immunize against smallpox. Cowpox virus causes vesicular lesions on teats and udders of cows, transmitted via hands of milkers producing localized pustules on hands, mild fever and regional lymphadenopathy but self-limited disease due to limited replication in human skin. Jenner reasoned that cross-reactive antigens shared within Orthopoxvirus genus provide cross protection, since orthopoxviruses possess conserved envelope proteins like A27, H3, D8 and B5. In May 1796 he colle

Ref: Jenner Inquiry 1798 cowpox; Baxby 1999 Cowpox to Vaccinia; Barquet Domingo Clin Microbiol.

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Vaccine

The first successful vaccine was developed against:

First successful vaccine in history targeted smallpox, a highly contagious severe disease caused by variola major and minor viruses double-stranded DNA orthopoxvirus with case fatality 30 percent, disfiguring pustular rash progressing to scabs, blindness and death, responsible for 300-500 million deaths in 20th century alone. While variolation practice of inoculating smallpox pus existed in China and Turkey with significant risk, Jenner in 1798 demonstrated safer cowpox inoculation conferring protection without causing disseminated smallpox. Subsequent mass vaccination campaigns through 19th a

Ref: Fenner Smallpox eradication book WHO; Riedel Proc Baylor 2005 first vaccine smallpox; CDC.

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