Edward Jenner, a doctor in England, lived during the 18th century. At that time, smallpox was a dreaded disease that killed thousands of people every year. Smallpox is n infectious disease which causes pus-filled blisters to spread over the body, and often resulted in death.
Jenner noticed that milk-maids were immune to smallpox. He thought that this was because they were often infected by cowpox, a disease similar to smallpox, but less severe.
Jenner believed that the pus form blisters caused by cow-pox protected the milkmaids from smallpox. He tested the theory by inoculating a boy called James Phipps, his gardener’s son, with pus from cow-pox blisters. James experienced a fever, but he did not get small pox.
Jenner repeated the experiment on more than 20 people, proving that those he had inoculated with cowpox were immune to smallpox.
Edward Jenner thus became the pioneer of the world’s first vaccine- the smallpox vaccine. His work on smallpox made him internationally famous.
Today, smallpox has been completely eradicated from the world, thanks to the smallpox vaccine, and Edward Jenner.
