Edward Jenner and Vaccination

Who was Edward Jenner?

Edward Jenner was a country doctor who discovered vaccines.

What was Jenner known as?

Jenner was also known as 'the Father of Immunology'.

What was used before Jenner created vaccinations?

Inoculation involved spreading the pus from an infected wound into a cut on the skin of a healthy person. They would then catch a mild case of the disease and build up immunity.

What disease did Jenner help cure?

In the 18th century, smallpox was a big killer. It was highly infectious and spread from one person to another through coughing, sneezing or touching. It killed about 30% of the people who caught it.

What did Jenner observe?

In the 1790s, Jenner realised that milkmaids did not catch smallpox if they had already had cowpox.

What was Jenner's experiment?

Jenner's experiment involved deliberately infecting a boy with cowpox, then later infecting him with smallpox. The boy didn't catch smallpox as he had built up resistance to it.

Why was vaccination safer than inoculation according to Jenner?

Vaccination against smallpox proved that you didn't need to catch a disease directly in order to build up immunity to it. Jenner simply used a similar and milder disease, cowpox, to help protect against smallpox.

When did Jenner publish his theory on vaccination?

Jenner published his theory in 1798.

Why did Jenner call his discovery vaccination?

The name vaccine comes from the Latin word vacca, which means cow.

Why did Jenner face opposition to his discovery?

There were 6 main reasons Jenner faced opposition.

• ❖ The Church did not believe cows should play a part in healing humans, seeing it as unnatural.
• ❖ Inoculation doctors were angry, because inoculation was an expensive treatment that made them a lot of money. Vaccination would take away this income.
• ❖ Jenner was not well known in London, as he was a country doctor. As a result, many were reluctant to believe his findings. The Royal Society refused to publish them.
• ❖ Dr William Woodville was in dispute with Jenner after some of his patients died from smallpox while using Jenner's techniques. However, Woodville's equipment was later shown to be contaminated.
• ❖ Jenner published his findings, but could not explain how vaccination worked. This made it difficult for other doctors to accept his theory.
• ❖ This discovery was made before germ theory, so Jenner couldn't explain the link between cowpox and smallpox or reproduce the link with any other diseases.

Why was Jenner significant?

Jenner was significant for 2 main reasons:

• ❖ His smallpox vaccine was the first successful vaccine to be developed and led to the science of immunology.
• ❖ In 1853, the vaccine was made compulsory and in 1980, the World Health Organisation declared that smallpox had been eradicated.