Edward Jenner History and Contribution to vaccine development (Father of Immunology)

Hello all. In this series of videos, we are discussing about the interesting stories behind pioneers of public health. In this video, we are going to discuss the story of Edward Jenner. Edward Jenner, the British physician is widely regarded as the father of immunology for his contributions in the field of vaccines. Before starting the presentation, let me break the two common myths that he was not the person who was first to suggest that infection with cowpox conferred specific immunity to smallpox. And also, he was not the first person to attempt cowpox inoculation for this purpose. When we try to understand the contributions of Edward Jenner, it is important to read the history of smallpox. Evidences of cases of smallpox from mummies of Egypt and literatures from China and India prove that there were cases as early as 1500 to 1000 BCE. Because Europe was involved in more trade with other parts of the world, there was a continuous epidemics of smallpox in Europe. In 18th century, nearly 40,000 people die of smallpox every year, and nearly one-third of survivors become blind. The disease carried a high case fatality rate, varying between 20% to 60%, and left most of the survivors with disfiguring scars. The case fatality rate of the disease was almost 80 to 98% in case of infants. As survivors of smallpox become immune to the disease, they were called upon to nurse the disease. The practice of inoculation of material from the pustule of smallpox lesions, that is, the lesions from the disease itself, smallpox lesions into the skin of non-immune is practiced in various parts of the world from 15th century. After the Edward Jenner success of vaccination in late 18th century and in early 19th century, people got convinced with his vaccination strategies, and finally in the year 1840, the British government banned variolation. In 1967, a global campaign was begun under the guardianship of the World Health Organization. Eradication of smallpox was declared in the year 1977. On May 8, 1980, the World Health Assembly announced that the world was free of smallpox and recommended that all countries can cease vaccination. They mentioned, the world and all its people have won freedom from smallpox, which was the most devastating disease sweeping in epidemic form through many countries since earliest times, leaving death, blindness and disfigurement and its wake. After completing the history of smallpox, we are moving on to the history of Edward Jenner's contributions in vaccination against smallpox. Edward Jenner was born in mid-18th century and got variolated at the age of 8. He became the student of John Hunter when he was working in St. George's Hospital. John Hunter in this picture is not only his teacher but also his friend from whom he received the characteristic advice, why think, why not try the experiment. For many years, he had heard the tales that dairy maids were protected from smallpox naturally after having suffered from cowpox. Using the matter from Sarah Nirm's cowpox lesions, he inoculated an 8-year-old boy, James Phelps, and proved vaccination successful. The Latin word for cow is vacca and the cowpox is vaccinia. Jenner decided to call this new procedure vaccination. The germ theory of disease, the discovery and study of viruses, and the understanding of modern immunology all confirmed his idea of vaccination nearly a century later. Napoleon, who at the time was at war with Great Britain, had all his French troops vaccinated through Edward Jenner. Napoleon awarded Jenner a medal and at the request of Jenner, he released two English prisoners of war and permitted them returned home. Jenner's continuing work on vaccination prevented him from continuing his ordinary medical practice. He was supported financially by his colleagues and the king by petitioning in parliament. Now the question here is, was Edward Jenner the first to discover vaccine? The answer is no. By 1768, English physician John Fuster had realized that prior infection with cowpox rendered a person immune to smallpox. He conducted a meeting and encouraged practitioners to conduct experiments on this idea. In the years following, 1970, at least five investigators in England and Germany successfully tested in humans a cowpox vaccine against smallpox. When smallpox was present in Justy's locality in 1974, he was determined to protect his family, that is his wife and two boys, and succeeded in his vaccination effort. This happened exactly 22 years before Jenner's experiment. In fact, when Jenner was doing his experiment, Fuster and Justy commented that variolation is safer alternative to vaccination. Edward Jenner was interested in biology as his teacher friend John Hunter. In fact, he helped Captain James Cook in identifying the species after his first voyage. The irony in Jenner's discoveries is that he can convince the whole world about vaccination against smallpox. Almost a century before germ theory, discovery of virus and modern immunology concepts evolved. But he proposed a theory of parasitic nature of cuckoo hatchling that evicts the egg and chicks of the foster parents from the nest, as against the common belief that adult parent cuckoo evicts the eggs. His discovery was made fun and in fact anti-vaccinist at that time quoted this discovery as an example for his mad ideas. But actually a century later, the theory of Edward Jenner was proved correct. That is, immediately after the cuckoo hatchling hatches out in the nest of the foster parent, it kicks out the other eggs, which is confirmed exactly a century later. As Francis Galton said, in science, the real credit goes to the man who convinces the world, and not to the man to whom the idea first occurs. And to justify his statement, there cannot be a better example other than Edward Jenner. These are my references. Thank you for watching this video. Meet you all in my next video on Jon Snow. Thank you very much.