Who discovered Vaccination?

Sun, 24 Feb 2002 05:56:48 +0000

“Mom, I have a stomach ache and I am feeling sick!” Try this out at home and the quick response is bound to be, “Don’t worry, we will take you to the Doctor!” More often than not, if the ache is because you haven’t done your homework, the mere mention of the word ‘doctor’ cures you. Of course, if the problem is genuine no one will know the cure better than a doctor.

Edward Jenner was an English physician who was the pioneer of smallpox vaccine — the world’s first vaccine. rook76 / Shutterstock.com

Know what the scariest thing about a doctor is? – that invariably you get an injection for all aches and pains. Do you know that a newborn child is given vaccination for many diseases? You may throw a tantrum and scream your head off to avoid the injection and inwardly mutter death threats at the person who invented such a painful method for treatment, but the fact remains that whenever we are sick an injection does the trick.
How did it begin? It so happened that one day in 1768, a young milkmaid visited a doctor in Gloucestershire, England. Though nearly everyone in the district was then sick with smallpox, a dreaded disease at that time, the milkmaid was not affected! In the eighteenth century, smallpox was a killer disease, as widespread as cancer now, but with the difference that the majority of its victims were young children.

Vaccination History on Pitara Kids Network

Who discovered Vaccination?