By Emily Peterson ’22
Although we’ve learned about the British being America’s enemy during the Revolutionary War, there was another enemy against them: smallpox. The world had been fighting this disease for millenia, and this particular wave almost prevented the United States of America from ever being created.
The symptoms of smallpox start out minor, with back aches and cold sweats, then grow to be more dangerous, like intense vomiting and sores that grow on the skin. Those infected with the virus were extremely contagious and had to be placed in special quarantine units to prevent more infection. Sounds pretty similar to now, right?
Those who were infected with the virus had a 1 in 3 chance of survival, and even if they did survive, their skin would be scarred from the sores and rashes the disease left behind.
Treatments for smallpox were not super effective, until the Americans learned that if you gave someone a small amount of a dead version of the disease, they would be immune. Sure, they were a little sick for about a day, but then their bodies could fight off the disease.
This utilization of treatments involving dead versions of illnesses is still used today. By giving the body a dead version of the disease, it teaches the white blood cells how to recognize and fight the viruses, resulting in not getting sick. This treatment is how modern vaccines are.
Smallpox isn’t talked about much today, the reason being is that it does not exist anymore. By vaccinating everyone, the American side was able to defeat the British, and eradicate smallpox from the entire world.
Image credit: Wikipedia
