Who was Dr Edward Jenner what was his best contribution to medicine?
It seems prudent to review the history of a disease known to few people in the 21st century. Edward Jenner (Figure 1) is well known around the world for his innovative contribution to immunization and the ultimate eradication of smallpox (2).
How did Edward Jenner’s discovery changed modern medicine?
Edward Jenner, FRS FRCPE (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who pioneered the concept of vaccines including creating the smallpox vaccine, the world’s first vaccine.
What did smallpox do to the body?
Smallpox can cause a severe rash over the whole body that can leave scars. Other symptoms include high fever and severe headache or body aches. Death occurs in about 30 percent of infected people. Some survivors may suffer blindness.
Who was most affected by smallpox?
The highest smallpox infection rates were in persons 0–19 years of age, but the highest death rates were in those >45 years of age. Because of the low level of residual vaccine immunity, immunosuppression was more influential than vaccination on death and infection rates in our model.
Can smallpox make you sterile?
Survivors of smallpox infection apparently had similar marriage, sterility, and fecundity rates to the general population. It is argued that smallpox was of no significance as an aetiological factor in male infertility.
What causes variola?
Smallpox is caused by infection with the variola virus. The disease is spread through person to person contact, most often from inhalation of droplet nuclei expelled through the back of the throat (oropharynx) of an infected person.
Is polio a virus or bacteria?
Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a disabling and life-threatening disease caused by the poliovirus. The virus spreads from person to person and can infect a person’s spinal cord, causing paralysis (can’t move parts of the body).