Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume VII
- The Cambridge World History
- Production, Destruction, and Connection, 1750–Present
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Production, destruction, and connection, 1750–present: introduction
- Part I Material matrices
- Part II Population and disease
- 7 Demography and population
- 8 Population politics since 1750
- 9 Disease and world history from 1750
- 10 The politics of smallpox eradication
- Part III Politics
- Part IV World regions
- Index
- References
10 - The politics of smallpox eradication
from Part II - Population and disease
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
By
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume VII
- The Cambridge World History
- Production, Destruction, and Connection, 1750–Present
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Production, destruction, and connection, 1750–present: introduction
- Part I Material matrices
- Part II Population and disease
- 7 Demography and population
- 8 Population politics since 1750
- 9 Disease and world history from 1750
- 10 The politics of smallpox eradication
- Part III Politics
- Part IV World regions
- Index
- References
Summary
The global eradication of smallpox required techniques to manufacture vaccine on a vast scale and, eradication had to await the advent of freeze-dried vaccine, which could be preserved and transported without need for refrigeration. Smallpox, a deadly, infectious disease, had plagued humankind for millennia. In 1796 an English country physician named Edward Jenner made a discovery that proved a crucial milestone in the control of smallpox, and eventually led to its eradication. Given the unprecedented nature of Jenner's discovery, the spread of vaccination around the world was rapid. By the turn of the twentieth century, the growing acceptance of the germ theory of disease introduced new methods of disease control. The establishment of the League of Nations Health Organization after the First World War marked yet another stage in the rise of disease control as a field amenable to global action. The eradication of smallpox has often been celebrated in retrospect as the World Health Organization's crowning achievement.
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- The Cambridge World History , pp. 258 - 282Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
Further reading
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