Fighting Disease
What were the factors which determined the development of vaccines for
the treatment of disease?
The first significant step in the fight against infectious
disease was made in 1796 with discovery of a vaccine to
prevent smallpox by Edward Jenner. Jenner had become
aware of the fact that milkmaids who had suffered from a
mild illness, cowpox, were unlikely to catch the much more
serious smallpox disease. Jenner experimented on a child,
introducing cowpox into the bloodstream. Later, the child
was inoculated with smallpox, but did not catch the
disease. Jenner's method had proved much safer than the
fashionable technique of inoculation, which had been
brought to Britain from Turkey by Lady Montague. Despite
opposition from the medical establishment, many of whom
made a good income from inoculation, the government
backed Jenner's claims; by 1853, vaccination had become
compulsory for infants.
Louis Pasteur was a French chemist who in 1867 was able
to demonstrate for the first time that germs caused
disease. Pasteur went on to develop vaccines for chicken
cholera, anthrax and rabies. The new science of
bacteriology was advanced further by a German scientist,
Robert Koch. Using microscopes and innovative methods
of staining germs, Koch was able to identify specific germs
as being responsible for the cause of disease. In 1882-3,
he identified the microbes responsible for tuberculosis (TB)
and cholera.
A niece visits her smallpocked uncle
and gives him presents
A rivalry developed between Pasteur and Koch,
based in part on the tension which existed
following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian
war of 1870-1. Both scientists were recognised
in their own countries for their work, and set up
with research centres. In 1881, Pasteur,
successfully trialled a vaccine which protected
against anthrax in animals. Koch, who quickly
Jenner performing the first vaccination
heard of the breakthrough by telegram,
attempted unsuccessfully to discredit Pasteur.
When, in the following year, he had the opportunity to treat a boy with rabies called Joseph
Meister, Pasteur succeeded in developing a rabies vaccine.
Think about this:
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Although rivals, Koch and Pasteur were helped by each other's discoveries
There was a gap of nearly 100 years between the key discoveries of Jenner and
Pasteur
Smallpox was an epidemic disease in the 18th century; now it has been eradicated
worldwide.