Cows cure for SmallPox?

The origin of smallpox is not really known. But it is said that it possibly started spreading in the river valleys of Egypt, India, Middle East and China. It cannot be certainly said that it originated from animals but it is possible that it occurred from cowpox, horsepox or camelpox. The earliest evidence of skin damage was seen on the faces of the mummies in the year 1570 - 1085 BC. In the 5^th and 7^th century it was introduced in Europe and was frequently epidemic during the middle.

For many centuries, smallpox was considered as a deadly disease. Many attempts carried out for eradication of the disease failed.

At the end of the 18^th century, a great discovery regarding smallpox was made. An English surgeon named Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaid who had suffered from cow pox always recovered from smallpox. In the May of 1976, he chose a boy and a dairymaid for his experiment. He took a scraping from the cowpox pustule on the hand of the dairymaid and rubbed it on the body of the small boy. Then he took smallpox virus from another patient and injected it into the small boy. But much to his surprise, the small boy showed no signs of smallpox.

Then Edward Jenner tried the same experiment on his own child and obtained the same results. He made a discovery that changed the world and became a base for immunology.

A new vaccine was made based on Jenner’s research which made eradication of smallpox possible for the world.