Edward Jenner was an English physician who discovered a vaccine to prevent smallpox.
Jenner, the son of a minister, was born on May 17, 1749 in Berkeley, England.
Smallpox is such a rare disease now that it is hard to realize that during the Middle Ages it was the cause of horrible epidemics throughout Europe.
Not only was the death rate high, but those who lived through such epidemics were permanently scarred with ugly pockmarks. Many were left blind.
His alma mater was St George's, University of London
After receiving his medÂical education, Jenner returned to Berkeley where he became interested in the popular belief that people who had had cowpox, a mild disease contracted from cattle, could not get the deadly smallpox. This was not always true, because, as he discovered, only one of the two types of cowpox could protect.
Jenner had a chance to actually test the belief when a dairymaid with cowpox came to him. He injected fluid from the cowpox pustules into a healthy, young. Two months later he injected smallpox fluid into the same boy who did not develop the dread disease. This achievement started a national vaccine program which today is universal. The basic idea is used to protect against many diseases.
Edward Jenner is sometimes referred to as the "Father of Immunology"
Jenner died on January 26, 1823 (aged 73)
Jenner's works have been said to have "saved more lives than the work of any other man".
