Vaccination
Vaccination is a method of preventing somebody from catching a disease. The method involves injecting a person with a dead form of an infection. (Technically this is injection of dead pathogens which can’t reproduce, this means that should live pathogens be introduced they will be unable to live, therefore creating immunity to the infection). Vaccination is different to inoculation. Inoculation involves injection of live pathogens in a weakened state. This also results in immunisation. The first use of these techniques in the UK were in relation to Smallpox. Edward jenner learnt of Mary Montague Wortley’s use of inoculation for cowpox, which she had learn in Turkey. He used these principles to inoculate against Smallpox by injection of a weakened form of Cowpox.
Worksheet: The Fight against Infectious Disease
Schoolshistory home – History teachers resources – Medical History Timelines – Alexander Fleming – Florey and Chain develop Penicillin – Gerhard Domagk and Prontosil – Edward Jenner and the Smallpox Vaccine – Louis Pasteur and Germ Theory – Robert Koch – The development of Vaccinations – Was Penicillin an accident? – Paul Ehrlich and the Magic Bullet
Medicine Through time – Resources for Medicine Through Time – Prehistoric Medicine – Ancient Egyptian Medicine – Ancient Greek Medicine – Medicine in the Roman Empire – Medieval Medicine – Renaissance Medicine – Public Health in the Industrial Revolution – Fight against infectious disease – Modern Medicine
