Smallpox eradication day: How difficult it is to defeat disease? Just look at the 200-year history of human struggle with smallpox.

On October 25, 1979, the World Health Organization declared this day as the day when smallpox was eradicated in humans.

On October 25, 1977, a smallpox patient was found in Somalia, Africa. The World Health Organization announced that if no smallpox patients were found worldwide for two consecutive years, smallpox could be declared eradicated.

In the following two years, inspectors from the World Health Organization investigated the last four East African countries that had not yet been declared eradicated from smallpox - Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Djibouti - and found that these four countries had indeed eradicated the disease. So on October 25, 1979, the World Health Organization announced in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide, and held a celebration ceremony for it.

The complete eradication of smallpox is a great victory achieved by mankind in its struggle to conquer nature, but this victory was not easy to come by. It is the result of the efforts of countless famous and unknown scientists and doctors over thousands of years. This is the first virulent infectious disease to be completely eradicated in human history, and it is also an epoch-making victory achieved by mankind in its long struggle against disease.

One of the oldest infectious diseases

Smallpox is one of the oldest and most lethal infectious diseases on earth. It is highly contagious and has a high mortality rate. The disease got its name because pockmarks were left on the face of the patients after recovery.

The earliest recorded outbreak of smallpox occurred in ancient Egypt. Researchers found smallpox scars on the mummy of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses V, who died in 1156 BC, so this pharaoh is generally known as the "earliest" smallpox patient.

In European history, smallpox had been prevalent many times, and 60% of Europeans had been threatened by smallpox. A 17th-century British history book recorded: "At that time, smallpox was the most terrible of all fatal diseases. Although the plague was more harmful, its frequency of outbreaks was not high after all; smallpox was prevalent from time to time, and it piled up bones, and everyone was in a state of panic. It made cute babies ugly, and loving mothers were heartbroken; it also disfigured beautiful girls, and lovers were heartbroken." So much so that after the smallpox outbreak, women without scars on their faces were considered rare beauties.

In October 1562, Queen Elizabeth I of England was infected with smallpox. Although she survived, her hair fell out and her face was covered with scars that she could only cover with a wig.

The number of ordinary people killed by smallpox is even greater. In France, there was an outbreak of smallpox in 1754. Due to the large number of deaths, the cemeteries around the city were full. Finally, the Marquesa Park on the outskirts of the city was turned into a cemetery, and the bodies were stacked layer by layer in the graves. From the 16th to the 18th century, about 500,000 people died of smallpox in Europe every year.

The lingering curse of the Qing Dynasty

In addition to Europe and America, smallpox also ravaged Asia. In traditional Chinese medicine, smallpox is called "pox" or "pox rash". In ancient China, smallpox was like a plague, with extremely high infection and mortality rates. In that era when science was not yet developed, people often regarded smallpox as the wrath of God or God's punishment. Ge Hong of the Jin Dynasty described the symptoms and prevalence of smallpox for the first time in his book "Emergency Prescriptions for the Elbow", and the prevalence of smallpox was recorded in Chinese classics of various generations.

Smallpox had a serious impact on the political situation in the early Qing Dynasty. Smallpox was to the Manchus when they first entered the country, just as smallpox was to the Indians.

Shunzhi was the first emperor to live in the Forbidden City after the Qing Dynasty entered the Forbidden City. In order to avoid the infection of smallpox, Shunzhi did not hesitate to disrupt the normal court system and hid in the deep palace and dared not attend court. But in the end, he still could not escape the clutches of smallpox.

Soon after Shunzhi's son Xuanye was born, he was sent to a smallpox shelter outside Xihua Gate to avoid smallpox. Despite the layers of defense, he still contracted smallpox when he was less than two years old. Fortunately, with careful care, Xuanye survived.

One of the important reasons why Emperor Kangxi Xuanye could inherit the throne was that he had smallpox and was immune to this terrible disease for life. Although Shunzhi died of smallpox, his son Xuanye won the throne because of smallpox. However, the shadow of smallpox in his childhood has always shrouded Kangxi's heart.

In the late Qing Dynasty, on December 5, the 13th year of the Tongzhi reign, Cixi's only son, Emperor Tongzhi, died of smallpox again. After Tongzhi got smallpox, Cixi did not actively seek new treatments, but instead carried out activities of "offering sacrifices to the smallpox god" inside and outside the palace. Tongzhi quietly passed away in the hustle and bustle of praying to the gods and ancestors.

The first infectious disease to be completely eradicated

China has made important contributions in the fight against smallpox.

After Emperor Kangxi ascended the throne, under his vigorous promotion, the Qing Dynasty's measures to prevent smallpox gradually became systematic and institutionalized. Kangxi set up a special smallpox diagnosis department in the Imperial Hospital and recruited famous doctors from all over the country. He also established the position of "Zhaxiao Zhangjing" to be fully responsible for the prevention and treatment of smallpox in the Eight Banners.

In the middle and late Kangxi era, the traditional vaccination method from the south was introduced to the north. Thanks to Kangxi's effective measures, the spread of smallpox was effectively curbed. For more than a hundred years thereafter, there was little news about smallpox in the palace.

Zhu Chungu, a famous doctor in the Qing Dynasty, mentioned in his book "The Final Discussion of Smallpox" that during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of Song Dynasty, several children of Prime Minister Wang Dan successively contracted smallpox, and finally only one child, Wang Su, was left. The prime minister did not want to cut off his family line, so he invited a famous doctor to prescribe medicine for the child to prevent smallpox.

Unexpectedly, the famous doctor ground the scabs of the patients who had recovered from smallpox into powder and asked Wang Su to inhale it. Does this method of fighting poison with poison really work? The answer is yes. Although Wang Su subsequently developed mild symptoms of smallpox, he recovered on his own not long after. He never got smallpox again in his life and lived to the age of 67.

This is also the earliest recorded case of "human pox" in Chinese history, which opened the door to human immunology. Using powder from the scabs of recovered patients to infect people with mild smallpox, people will be immune to smallpox for the rest of their lives.

For many years, biologists and doctors have been committed to strengthening the human body by enhancing the body's immunity to resist external viral invasion, and have achieved fruitful results in this regard.

In 1796, British doctor Jenner invented the famous cowpox method based on the Chinese vaccination method. It was with this advanced treatment that humans completely eradicated smallpox.

The success of the cowpox vaccination opened up a vast field for immunology. When Jenner was 50 years old, people praised him as a great scientific inventor and life saver. Napoleon once called Jenner a great man. All modern vaccination methods actually originated from Jenner's first great discovery. Jenner was honored as the "Father of Immunology" by later generations for his outstanding contributions to immunology. He led many biologists and medical scientists to enter the door of immunology research and opened a new chapter in human disease prevention.

In 1958, the World Health Organization formulated a plan for the global eradication of smallpox. Around 1960, smallpox was eradicated in China.

The smallpox virus has caused the deaths of at least 500 million people worldwide, but it is also this tragic history of smallpox eradication that gave birth to the most important concept of immunology in modern medicine. In the process of human conquest of smallpox, the human pox vaccination method invented by China and the cowpox vaccination method invented by Jenner in the UK have both played an important role in eradicating smallpox.