The Small Pox Essay, Research Paper

In May 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner a physician started investigating what was called cowpox which was a disease contracted by milking cows. This disease caused discomfort and lesions. This discovery and experiment with the cowpox disease seemed to produce an immunization to smallpox a very deadly disease. Dr. Jenner in 1798 produce the vaccination for smallpox and it seemed effective in stopping the mortality that this disease had on people affiliated.

The vaccination for smallpox , vaccinia virus, is an immunizing agent against smallpox and has proven to save lives of people that would have died without this vaccination. In 1980 the World Health Organization declared the world free of smallpox and stated that the vaccine would only be available to laboratory workers working directly with the virus with few others. This vaccine is not available for use to most of the population.

To understand this disease is to fear the unknown, its hard to say what feeling I would have on a spread of this disease that has been contained for many years before me. Fearing that this might be a weapon that terrorist use to cripple our nation is hard to deal with. If the smallpox virus was used it would kill many in so little time, as we are not prepared to handle an outbreak with no proper way to vaccinate people that are struck with the virus because of the little vaccine that is made and keep in our labs in the United States and Russia.