Smallpox: Not a Small Disease

By Sherri Boomershine

Smallpox has been present in the world since written history began. Mummies such as Ramses V, who ruled in the twelfth century B.C., showed evidence of raised bumps on his face and body; in fact, the name is derived from Latin for ‘spotted.’ It reached Europe in the sixth century, killing 30 percent of its victims while blinding and disfiguring many more.

The worst effects of the disease occurred in the Americas who hadn’t built up an immunity to smallpox. In fact, this disease along with others may have killed 90 percent of the indigenous population of North and South America, a blow much larger than any battle could render.

Since no one could contract smallpox twice, survivors of the disease were often called upon to nurse victims back to health, which involved using herbal remedies, bloodletting, drinking large quantities of beer, and exposing them to red objects.

Ironically, those who could afford care seemed to be dying at a higher rate than those who couldn’t. As a result, inoculations (variolations) took precedence over more natural remedies, which involved taking pus or powdered scabs from patients with a mild case of the disease and inserting them into the skin or nose of susceptible, healthy people. Ideally, the healthy people would suffer only a slight infection this way and, in so doing, would develop immunity to future outbreaks. Benjamin Franklin, who had lost a son to smallpox, was a proponent of inoculations.

Notwithstanding inoculations, many reigning monarchs were killed by smallpox in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including Habsburg Emperor Joseph I, Queen Mary II of England, Czar Peter II of Russia, and King Louis XV of France. Both Abraham Lincoln and Queen Elizabeth I contracted smallpox but lived to see another day.

Finally, in 1796, English doctor Edward Jenner performed an experiment that would, in good time, cause the virus’s downfall. By inserting pus from a milkmaid with cowpox into the arm of a healthy 8-year-old boy and then variolating him to no effect, Jenner was able to conclude that a person could be protected from smallpox without having to be directly exposed to it. This was the world’s first successful vaccine, a term that Jenner himself coined. He tried to publish his results in a medical journal, only to be told not to “promulgate such a wild idea if he valued his reputation.”

The vaccine finally caught on, and after searching far and wide for any remaining trace of smallpox, the WHO passed a resolution on May 8, 1980, declaring smallpox eradicated.

Jesse Greenspan. “The Rise and Fall of Smallpox.” www.history.com May 2015.

Sherri Boomershine is a woman of faith who loves all things foreign whether it’s food, culture, or language. A former French teacher and flight attendant, her passion is traveling to the settings of her books, sampling the food, and visiting the sites. She visited a Netherlands concentration camp for A Song for Her Enemies, and Paris art museums for What Hides beyond the Walls. Sherri lives with her husband Mike, her high school sweetheart, whom she married fifty-five years later. As an author and editor, she hopes her books will entertain and challenge readers to live large and connect with their Savior. Join, chat, and share with her on social media. Newsletter Facebook Twitter Instagram Website

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