All articles tagged with #smallpox
The article explores the long history of vaccine skepticism, dating back to the 1800s, highlighting how opposition has often been rooted in concerns over personal freedom and misinformation, despite vaccines' proven effectiveness in eradicating diseases like smallpox and saving millions of lives.
The improbable victory over smallpox, the last recorded case of naturally occurring variola major smallpox in 1975, holds lessons for health threats in 2024. Dr. Céline Gounder, a physician and epidemiologist, traveled to India and Bangladesh to capture the history of the smallpox eradication campaign, highlighting the stories of South Asian public health workers and survivors. The eradication leaders' unwarranted optimism and moral imagination, along with the need to respect local culture and address immediate needs, offer valuable lessons for confronting current public health challenges. The article emphasizes the importance of meeting people's basic needs and building trust to effectively respond to future health crises.
Historians have found evidence that Africans in West Africa were practicing smallpox inoculation before the 18th century, long before it was introduced in the Americas. Enslaved Africans played a significant role in introducing the practice of smallpox inoculation throughout the Americas by the 1700s. However, the contributions of Africans, Arabs, Asians, and North Africans to the development of inoculation and vaccination have been largely overlooked in favor of Western European figures like Edward Jenner. Recognizing the non-Western roots of medicine and public health is crucial for healing medical mistrust in Black communities and creating conditions for Black people's thriving globally.
The maker of the mpox vaccine, Bavarian Nordic, is looking to increase its production capacity to prepare for a potential threat from smallpox. The company plans to simplify its production process to scale up production capacity to hundreds of millions of doses in the event of an emergency. The European Union's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority and at least two European national governments have shown interest in stockpiling the Jynneos vaccine for use against smallpox. Bavarian Nordic's current production capacity is tens of millions of doses, which would not be sufficient to deal with a widespread outbreak of smallpox.