#to go down a 'contributions of woc' (particularily middle easter south asian or muslim women) comes up i have to take it | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

violentdevotion · 4 years ago

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@clintonvevo thank you for your tags!!!!

On the 8th May 1980 WHO declared that smallpox was eradicated.

This is thanks to the Intensified Eradication Program which helped eradicate smallpox in South America, Asia and Africa (it had already been eliminated in North America and Europe)

The basis of this vaccination came in 1796 when an English doctor named Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids who had gotten cowpox didn't show symptoms of smallpox. He tested this by injecting material from a cowpox sore into a 9 year old boys arm and then exposing him to smallpox, when he didn't get ill he concluded that this would eradicate smallpox.

Before Jenner people would do something called variolation, where the material from smallpox sores would be given (either through inhalation or scratching it into their arms) to people who never had smallpox. They had suffered from smallpox symptoms but fewer people died from it. This method was introduced to England by Lady Mary Montagu.

Except, women in the Ottoman Empire had been practicing variolation for centuries beforehand.

Women in the Ottomen Empire had been the ones to introduce it to Lady Mary Montagu.

It may have been founded in China or India centuries before that.

#idk how to say this succintly but you more eloquently put into words the point i was alluding to #also when i made the post i was waiting for you to see if because i KNEW you would have something clever to add and i needed it lmaooo #in the original post in the tags i do say im incredibly grateful that Edward Jenner had developed the vaccine using cowpox #i just never heared of variolation before today and i especially never knew where it originated #when you read about it as well you hear about lady mary montagu bringing it to the uk #but not the women thag showed her #and i thought that was fascinating #we had to learn about the developement of the smallpox vaccine in year 8 chemistry?? i think?? i remember my chem teacher teaching it #and she never even mentioned variolation #and the only time i had ever heard of herbal medicine outside of anti vax moms was a horrible histories skit about arab doctors using herbs #to heal infections as opposed to eurpoean doctors who would jusy cut the limb off #i wish i had a stronger personal incentive and the time to read about this stuff but unfortunately i dont so whenever any sort of oppurtunit #to go down a 'contributions of woc' (particularily middle easter south asian or muslim women) comes up i have to take it #legalle #still havent finished my essay on this piem #but im wiser about smallpox at leasf

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