Next year will mark 250 years since the first vaccination against smallpox was made in Russia. Our article is dedicated to the history of vaccination against this dangerous disease.
A few words about smallpox
According to scientists, this highly infectious infection appeared on our planet between 66-14 millennia BC. However, according to the results of recent scientific studies, humanity began to suffer from smallpox only about 2000 years ago, having been infected by camels.
In typical cases, the disease was accompanied by fever, general intoxication, as well as the appearance of peculiar rashes on the mucous membranes and skin, which successively passed through the stages of spots, vesicles, pustules, crusts and scars.
Smallpox can be infected by any person if he does not have immunity obtained as a result of vaccination or a disease transferred earlier. The disease is transmitted by airborne droplets, so it is extremely difficult to defend against it. At the same time, infection is possible through direct contact with the affected skin of the patient or any infected objects. The patient is a danger to others throughout the disease. Even the corpses of those who died from smallpox for a long time remain contagious.
Fortunately, in 1980, WHO announced a complete victory over the disease, so vaccines are not currently available.
History
The first large-scale epidemic of smallpox was recorded in China in the IV century. Four centuries later, the disease claimed the lives of almost a third of the population of the Japanese islands. Around the same period, smallpox struck Byzantium, where it came from Africa during the reign of Emperor Justinian.
In the VIII century, outbreaks of the disease were recorded in Syria, Palestine and Persia, Sicily, Italy, Spain and France.
By the 15th century, smallpox had become commonplace in Europe. One of the famous doctors of this time wrote that everyone should get sick with it. After traveling, Columbus smallpox spread to the American continent, where it claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. By the beginning of the XVIII century, when Europe began to accurately record the causes of deaths among the population, it turned out that the number of deaths from this disease in Prussia reaches about 40 000, and in Germany - 70 000 deaths per year. In general, in the Old World, up to one and a half million adults and children died every year from smallpox. In Asia and on other continents, things were even worse.
Smallpox in Russia
There are no written references to this disease in our country until the middle of the 17th century. However, this does not mean that he was not. This is evidenced by a dozen names of ancient noble families, such as the Ryabovs, Ryabtsevs or Shchedrins.
By the middle of the XVIII century, smallpox had already penetrated into all Russian regions, right up to Kamchatka. The disease affected all layers of Russian society, sparing no one. In particular, in 1730, 14-year-old Emperor Peter the Second died of smallpox infection. Peter the Third also suffered from it, who, up to his tragic death, suffered from the consciousness of his ugliness, which is the result of smallpox.
Early fighting methods
From the moment when here and there the foci of the smallpox epidemic began to flare up, attempts were made to find a cure for it. Moreover, sorcerers who fought the infection with spells and putting on red clothes designed to draw the infection from the body were attracted to the “treatment”.
The first more or less effective method of combating smallpox in the Old World was variolation. The essence of this method was to extract the biological material from the pustules of the convalescent and to vaccinate them in healthy people by pulling the infected threads under the incised skin.
This method came to Europe in 1718 from Turkey, from where the wife of the British ambassador brought it to Europe. Although variolation did not give a guarantee of 100%, among the vaccinated, the percentage of patients and the level of their mortality significantly decreased. The fear of smallpox was so great that after a while such vaccinations were ordered to be made by members of the family of the British monarch George the First.
The beginning of the fight against the disease in our country
The first smallpox vaccine in Russia was made in 1768. An English doctor, Thomas Dimsdale, was invited to organize mass variation in St. Petersburg. So that the population does not resist, Catherine II decided to set an example. The empress went to Tsarskoye Selo, where she was secretly given the first vaccination against smallpox in Russia of the variolation type. The biomaterial was taken from the peasant boy Sasha Markov, who was subsequently granted the nobility and the surname Markov-Ospenny.
After the procedure, Catherine was treated for a week, during which she almost did not eat anything and suffered from fever and headache. When the empress recovered, the heir Pavel Petrovich and his wife were vaccinated. An English doctor, Thomas Dimsdale, received a baronial title as a reward for his work, as well as the title of Life Medic and a lifetime pension. A few years later, the grandchildren of Catherine the Second were vaccinated.
Further story
The first vaccine against smallpox in Russia, made by the Empress, made the variation fashionable, many aristocrats followed the example of their monarchine. It is known that over the next 2-3 months, about 140 courtiers were inoculated. The matter reached the point of absurdity, as even those who had already had this disease and had acquired immunity from it expressed a desire to get vaccinated.
By the way, the empress was very proud that she was the first to be vaccinated against smallpox in Russia and wrote about the effect that her act had on her friends and relatives abroad.
Mass vaccination
The Empress was not going to stop there. Soon she ordered that all students of the cadet corps, and then soldiers and officers in units of the imperial army, be vaccinated. Of course, the method was imperfect and deaths were recorded, but variation, no doubt, contributed to a decrease in the number of victims of smallpox among the Russian population.
Jenner Vaccination
By the beginning of the 19th century, variation was supplanted by another, more advanced method of preventing disease, the Latin name of which sounds like Variola vera.
The first vaccine against smallpox in Russia according to the method of the English doctor Jenner was made in 1801. It was conducted by Professor E. Mukhin, who vaccinated Anton Petrov from the Moscow educational house. For this, the child was given the name of the Vaccines and a pension was appointed. Since then, vaccines have been given everywhere. The government made sure that as many babies as possible would not be left without vaccination. In 1815, even lists of unvaccinated boys and girls were compiled. However, until 1919, smallpox vaccination was not mandatory. Only after the decree of the SNK of the RSFSR were vaccinated absolutely all children. As a result, the number of patients with 186,000 people fell to 25,000 by 1925.
Moscow epidemic
Today it’s hard to believe, but 300 years after the first smallpox vaccine was given in Russia (you already know), an outbreak of this terrible disease occurred in the capital of the USSR. It was brought from India by an artist who was present at the ritual burning of the deceased barmine. Upon returning, the man infected seven of his relatives, and nine people from the staff and three patients of the hospital, where he was taken because of a malaise, the cause of which the ambulance doctor could not diagnose. The artist himself died, and an epidemic affected more than 20 people. As a result, of the 46 infected, three died, and the entire population of the capital was vaccinated.
Worldwide smallpox eradication program
If the first vaccination against smallpox in Russia was made in the XVIII century, but in many countries of Asia and Africa the population was not vaccinated even by the middle of the twentieth century.
In 1958, the Deputy Minister of Health of the Soviet Union V. Zhdanov presented the program for eradicating smallpox on the planet at the 11th session of the World Health Assembly. The initiative of the USSR was supported by the participants in the summit, who adopted the corresponding resolution. Later, in 1963, WHO decided to intensify the mass vaccination of humanity. As a result, since 1977, not a single case of smallpox has been reported. This allowed 3 years later to declare a complete victory over smallpox. In this regard, it was decided to stop vaccination. Thus, everyone who was born on our planet later than 1979 is currently defenseless against smallpox.
Now you know the answer to the question of when the first smallpox vaccine was given in Russia. Who first came up with the idea of mass vaccination - you also know. It is hoped that this dangerous disease is really defeated and will never again threaten humanity.