PUBH 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Smallpox Vaccine, Variolation, Herd Immunity
Document Summary
Patient must be quarantined after variolation: contagious. Administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen. Usually preventive but can ameliorate morbidity from infections. Antigenic: any structural substance that serves as adapter (material from infected patient) Process by which an individual"s immune system becomes fortified against the agent( immune response) Active: exposing body to immunogen in a controlled way (injection) to create antibodies. Passive: introduces antibodies directly into individual (mother to infant) Method first used to immunize against smallpox. Take something/pathogen from patient that was sick, put into other person. Common in china but not in western europe. Protection to community is greater when everyone is immunized. Lady wortley montagu (english writer and aristocrat) Credited for introducing practice into england as a safer, alternative to contract smallpox naturally. Statistical observation: variolation was safer and long lasting . Implemented variolation in 1721 during smallpox outbreak in boston.
