In the history of China, perhaps the most famous smallpox incident was the succession of Emperor Kangxi. As the second king of the Qing Dynasty, in the eighteenth year of Shunzhi, the emperor shunzhi (whose death was closely related to smallpox) accepted Tang Ruowang's suggestion and made Michelle Ye, who had been spared from smallpox (it is generally believed that smallpox would be immune for life once), the heir.
Compared with the outbreak at home, this virulent infectious disease in the name of the devil has caused great lethality abroad, including but not limited to European colonization of the American continent, smallpox in America, and the death of tens of millions of Indians.
However, this kind of smallpox was completely eliminated in the late 1970s, and it became the only infectious disease that was eliminated by human beings in the world. So how was it destroyed?
The origin of smallpox virus is still inconclusive. But one thing is certain, that is, it benefits from human contact with wild animals, including but not limited to domestic animals and carnivores. The average incubation period of smallpox virus is about 12 days, accompanied by high fever, headache, rapid heartbeat and obvious rash on face, arms and legs, and then it begins to fester and scab. The most terrible thing is that the patient has no obvious symptoms within one week of onset, but when symptoms appear, the patient can only resign himself to fate. Explosive smallpox will kill the patient, while benign smallpox will leave a pockmarked face and the patient will get better. The mortality rate of this explosive smallpox reached about 25%, and it is conceivable that the patients were desperate after learning that they had smallpox.
Of course, for this kind of "fierce illness", the ancients did not sit still, but kept looking up and down. Ge Hong, a medical scientist in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, put forward a cure for smallpox in his book "Elbow Back Saving Death"-"Take honey and rub it on your body, or fry it with honey, and eat it several times; On the other hand, boil with water and wash with cotton. If the wine stains are good, the pain is unbearable. " That is, it is smeared on honey, or decocted with honey and Cimicifuga; Or it's better to boil Cimicifuga water, soak cotton in medicine and wine, but the pain is unbearable.
But as far as the actual effect is concerned, this prescription has little effect. Later, in the Tang Dynasty, the famous doctor Sun Simiao put forward another method in Qian Jin Fang: "The prescription for treating children's red and black defects: acupuncture the father's feet, taking blood to paste the defects; The prescription for treating children's wart eyes: cut the surrounding eyes with a needle and a small knife to make them look like blood, and take yellow pus from the sores of patients with sores. "
Visible, at the latest in the Tang Dynasty, Sun Simiao had the practice of vaccination against human pox. The inoculation method of human pox was popular in Ming dynasty, but in fact it still has certain risks. Although the mortality rate is greatly reduced compared with that of smallpox, there is still a mortality rate of 1%-3%.
Therefore, how to reduce the death rate of smallpox again has become the goal of doctors. With the frequent communication in the world, the inoculation method of human pox was gradually introduced to Europe through the communication between East and West.
Finally, in 1796, edward jenner realized the transformation from human pox vaccination to vaccinia vaccination, and achieved success. This method makes use of the cross immunity of smallpox and vaccinia, and also makes people not die after vaccination with vaccinia, and is also immune to smallpox. So the demise of smallpox is just a matter of promotion. While selflessly dedicating this technology, edward jenner published one paper after another in the face of opposition and slander, and put it into practice. This effective method has been popularized in just a few years.
From 65438 to 0955, at the suggestion of the Soviet Union, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global smallpox eradication campaign, which was also supported by all countries in the world. The activity was officially launched from 65438 to 0967. After more than ten years of treatment, the last patient with smallpox in Somalia was cured in 1977. 19791On October 26th, the United Nations World Health Organization announced the eradication of smallpox worldwide. More than 40 years have passed, and in the face of new dangers, we will certainly be able to survive safely!