Episode: Sarah and Jenner

( Jenner vaccinating a child while his assistant extracts the cow pox germ )

The second act of immunisation: Vaccination.

Sarah was a beautiful woman. She took pride in her unblemished skin. She did not have a single pock mark yet. She worked as a milkmaid, delivering fresh milk to the country doctor, Edward Jenner.

It was 1790s. Britain’s countryside were grimly marked by frequent smallpox outbreaks. This devastating disease ravaged communities, impacting both rich and poor with equal ferocity. One in three individuals infected succumbed, and survivors often bore the lasting scars of pockmarks. Edward Jenner was saddened. While half of the society ladies of his county Gloucestershire were suffering the dreadful disease, the bother half were disfigured by the ugly pock marks on their face. There was one exception though. The beautiful and haughty Sarah.
..
Jenner was inquisitive.
Sarah was a proud lady.

“My face is my wealth.” She would brag.
“Don’t get so conceited, Sarah. It would only take one attack of pox to ruin you.”
” My face would always remain the most beautiful in the village.”
“How are you so sure ?”

She showed him few blisters on her fingers which she had got from her cow while milking,
“You know since I’ve got this cowpox on my fingers, Smallpox cannot touch my face. One pox prevents the other.”

It is an ancient wisdom that once you suffer from the pox virus and recover fully, you are blessed with life long immunity.
That is why Shitala Mata, the Indian pox goddess would visit everybody ONLY ONCE in their life. That set Dr Jenner thinking.

Can the mild cow pox prevent the deadly small pox ?

So on 14 May 1796, Dr Jenner scraped the blister on the hand of Sarah and injected it to JAMES PHIPPS, the 8 years old son of his gardener. 8 weeks after this, he injected small pox germ into the child. This is the first clinical trial on record.
The child didn’t suffer.

But the local church was wild. This was so un-catholic like. They howled. INJECTING HUMANS with BOVINE PUS. What if the child grew two horns ! So abominable.

Undeterred, Dr Jenner went on to inoculate 23 more children.

The church then provoked all the village folk against Jenner, “You will grow horns, if you get pus from cow inside your body.”

So Jenner did the next best thing. He inoculated his 11 month old son Robert.
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Eventually, vaccination was accepted. It took 40 years. The British government introduced the UK VACCINE ACT in 1840.

It would take another 130 YEARS to eliminate small pox from the face of earth. ( 26 October, 1976).

Edward Jenner was remembered for ever as the father of modern vaccination. Jenner’s unique contribution to our world is the word VACCINE. It is derived from the latin word VACCA. Vacca in latin means COW.