360Edward Jenner tests the first vaccine
On 14 May 1796, the English doctor Edward Jenner infected a boy with mild cowpox and later showed he was protected from smallpox. It was the first vaccine. Vaccination spread worldwide, and in 1980 smallpox, which had killed hundreds of millions of people, became the first human disease ever eradicated.
Smallpox was one of the most feared diseases in history. It killed many of those infected and left survivors scarred.
Edward Jenner, a country doctor in Gloucestershire, heard that milkmaids who had caught cowpox, a mild disease from cows, did not get smallpox. On 14 May 1796, he took material from a cowpox sore on the hand of a milkmaid, Sarah Nelmes, and introduced it into a scratch on the arm of eight-year-old James Phipps.
Weeks later, Jenner exposed the boy to smallpox, and he did not become ill. Jenner published his findings in 1798. He called the method vaccination, from vacca, the Latin word for cow.
Vaccination spread quickly around the world. In 1967, the World Health Organization launched a global campaign to eradicate smallpox. The last natural case was recorded in 1977, and in 1980 the world was declared free of the disease. Jenner's idea now protects billions of people against many illnesses.
- 14 May 1796
- Jenner vaccinates James Phipps
- 1798
- Jenner publishes his results
- 1967
- WHO's smallpox eradication campaign begins
- 1980
- Smallpox declared eradicated
Sources: World Health Organization · Jenner Museum · Britannica.