Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Webinars
I found this site: http://www.pharmacyonesource.com/webinars/ which is set up to show online seminars (webinars) dealing with health care which I believe you can view live and participate in by asking questions of the speaker. There are also past webinars to view, one of which was particularly interesting and relates well to the issues regarding drug expenditures that we looked at in the first few weeks of class. This particular webinar is called "Trends in Drug Expenditures: 2010 Update" and was posted on the 23/06/10 (now under the heading Past Webinars) if you want to have a look/listen. You do have to sign up to the website in order to view the webinars but I think this is more to enable you to participate in the live webinars than anything else...I haven't received any spam mail from them yet.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Edward Jenner and Vaccination
Edward Jenner and Vaccination:
The journey to the discovery of vaccination (from the Latin for cowpox, vaccinia) revolves around smallpox which in the 1700s killed 20-40% of all those who contracted the disease and left those who survived terribly disfigured and in some cases even blinded by the pus filled blisters.
One of the first steps toward eliminating smallpox came in 1715 when the famous Turkish physician Dr Timoni witnessed a method for eradicating smallpox which had been adopted by the Arabs who, like the healers in ancient China and India, believed that one attack of smallpox conferred ‘lifelong’ immunity to the disease. The Arab healers made small cuts in a healthy person’s arm and rubbed into this incision some of the fluid or pus obtained from a smallpox blister. Dr Timoni was so taken with this that he wrote a book in English describing the method in detail but the book made no impact on the physicians of Britain.
Another key person in the battle against smallpox was Lady Montagu who was the particularly beautiful and intelligent daughter of the Duke of Kingston. In 1717, while living in Constantinople, Lady Montagu lost her beauty to smallpox. Although she survived the disease her face was left disfigured by many deep scars from the blisters.
In the same year she gave birth to her second child, a daughter, with the assistance of her English physician and Dr Timoni. Having seen the scarring on Lady Montagu’s face, Dr Timoni persuaded her to let him immunise her first child, a son, using the method he had witnessed the Arabs using. Lady Montagu agreed to this and then when they returned to England her English physician also immunised her daughter using the same method.
Lady Montagu wanted to publicise this new procedure (which became known as variolation derived from the Latin word for smallpox, variola) so she invited newspaper reporters to witness the first variolation in England and then invited members of the Royal College of Physicians to visit her daughter after the inoculation. After this visit the procedure was given the tentative approval of the Royal College of Physicians.
Variolation, however, did not always produce the entirely positive results that early reports had indicated. Some estimates suggest that around 12% of those who were treated died. This is a figure that today would be totally unacceptable but at the time when compared to a mortality rate of 20-40% during an epidemic, variolation was the lesser of two evils.
Edward Jenner whose medical discoveries would one day replace variolation and rid the world of smallpox was variolated himself in 1757 at the age of 8 and was exposed to the useless and dangerous preparation period that had been introduced for no particular reason by British physicians of bleeding, fasting and purging in an experience that had serious psychological consequences for Jenner.
Jenner’s academic achievements qualified him only for training as a lowly surgeon and he started his apprenticeship at only 13 years of age. He trained for six years with a country surgeon and during this time heard stories of milkmaids who caught cowpox (a harmless disease for humans) on their hands and never caught smallpox. This gave Jenner the idea that deliberately giving people cowpox might prevent them from catching smallpox later.
Some years later at a medical meeting Jenner met Mr Frewster who in 1765 had presented the London Medical Society with his paper on cowpox and its ability to prevent smallpox but the paper was never published. The possible relationship between these two diseases still intrigued Jenner but the London Medical Society insisted that the topic had no medical relevance.
Today we know that smallpox, cowpox, swinepox, horsepox and a large number of other animal poxes are caused by orthopox viruses and all of them can infect humans. An infection with one member of the disease group immunizes a person against infection with all other members.
In December 1789, a nurse who looked after Jenner’s eldest son, Edward Jr., developed swinepox. Jenner took samples from the nurse’s lesions and inoculated his son and two other women who had been in contact with the nurse while she was ill. Nine days later all three became ill with swinepox, developing a few lesions on their arms where Jenner had made the incisions. A few weeks later, once they had recovered, Jenner variolated them with smallpox and none of them developed any symptoms.
Jenner was encouraged by the success of this experiment but not totally convinced so a year later he again variolated his son with smallpox. Edward Jr. caught a mild case of smallpox and we now know that swinepox confers only temporary immunity against smallpox.
In 1795, while recovering from typhoid fever, Jenner devised another experiment similar to the one he carried out on his son. Jenner would inoculate a healthy person who had never had smallpox with cowpox and once they had recovered he would variolate them with smallpox. If the variolation didn’t take it would mean that cowpox conferred immunity against smallpox.
In May 1796 Jenner found two suitable candidates, a young boy to be inoculated and a young milkmaid to act as the donor of cowpox. The young boy who was inoculated developed cowpox and in July once he had recovered Jenner variolated him with smallpox. As Jenner had predicted the boy did not develop any signs of the disease.
Jenner spent the next couple of months preparing a paper on his experiment for publication. However, the President of the Royal Society rejected the paper stating that Jenner needed more cases.
It was another two years before Jenner accumulated sufficient cases and he then published his work privately.
Jenner’s method of vaccination is the only method medicine has yet devised to prevent the onset of an infectious disease. And in 1977 the last case of smallpox was reported in Somalia.
Some physicians attempted to discredit Jenner reporting that some patients developed animal features after being inoculated with cowpox. Others attempted to take credit for the discovery themselves. Despite this, “[t]here can be no doubt that without Jenner’s continued personal effort and his political skill […] vaccination would not have become firmly established in medical practice.”
The journey to the discovery of vaccination (from the Latin for cowpox, vaccinia) revolves around smallpox which in the 1700s killed 20-40% of all those who contracted the disease and left those who survived terribly disfigured and in some cases even blinded by the pus filled blisters.
One of the first steps toward eliminating smallpox came in 1715 when the famous Turkish physician Dr Timoni witnessed a method for eradicating smallpox which had been adopted by the Arabs who, like the healers in ancient China and India, believed that one attack of smallpox conferred ‘lifelong’ immunity to the disease. The Arab healers made small cuts in a healthy person’s arm and rubbed into this incision some of the fluid or pus obtained from a smallpox blister. Dr Timoni was so taken with this that he wrote a book in English describing the method in detail but the book made no impact on the physicians of Britain.
Another key person in the battle against smallpox was Lady Montagu who was the particularly beautiful and intelligent daughter of the Duke of Kingston. In 1717, while living in Constantinople, Lady Montagu lost her beauty to smallpox. Although she survived the disease her face was left disfigured by many deep scars from the blisters.
In the same year she gave birth to her second child, a daughter, with the assistance of her English physician and Dr Timoni. Having seen the scarring on Lady Montagu’s face, Dr Timoni persuaded her to let him immunise her first child, a son, using the method he had witnessed the Arabs using. Lady Montagu agreed to this and then when they returned to England her English physician also immunised her daughter using the same method.
Lady Montagu wanted to publicise this new procedure (which became known as variolation derived from the Latin word for smallpox, variola) so she invited newspaper reporters to witness the first variolation in England and then invited members of the Royal College of Physicians to visit her daughter after the inoculation. After this visit the procedure was given the tentative approval of the Royal College of Physicians.
Variolation, however, did not always produce the entirely positive results that early reports had indicated. Some estimates suggest that around 12% of those who were treated died. This is a figure that today would be totally unacceptable but at the time when compared to a mortality rate of 20-40% during an epidemic, variolation was the lesser of two evils.
Edward Jenner whose medical discoveries would one day replace variolation and rid the world of smallpox was variolated himself in 1757 at the age of 8 and was exposed to the useless and dangerous preparation period that had been introduced for no particular reason by British physicians of bleeding, fasting and purging in an experience that had serious psychological consequences for Jenner.
Jenner’s academic achievements qualified him only for training as a lowly surgeon and he started his apprenticeship at only 13 years of age. He trained for six years with a country surgeon and during this time heard stories of milkmaids who caught cowpox (a harmless disease for humans) on their hands and never caught smallpox. This gave Jenner the idea that deliberately giving people cowpox might prevent them from catching smallpox later.
Some years later at a medical meeting Jenner met Mr Frewster who in 1765 had presented the London Medical Society with his paper on cowpox and its ability to prevent smallpox but the paper was never published. The possible relationship between these two diseases still intrigued Jenner but the London Medical Society insisted that the topic had no medical relevance.
Today we know that smallpox, cowpox, swinepox, horsepox and a large number of other animal poxes are caused by orthopox viruses and all of them can infect humans. An infection with one member of the disease group immunizes a person against infection with all other members.
In December 1789, a nurse who looked after Jenner’s eldest son, Edward Jr., developed swinepox. Jenner took samples from the nurse’s lesions and inoculated his son and two other women who had been in contact with the nurse while she was ill. Nine days later all three became ill with swinepox, developing a few lesions on their arms where Jenner had made the incisions. A few weeks later, once they had recovered, Jenner variolated them with smallpox and none of them developed any symptoms.
Jenner was encouraged by the success of this experiment but not totally convinced so a year later he again variolated his son with smallpox. Edward Jr. caught a mild case of smallpox and we now know that swinepox confers only temporary immunity against smallpox.
In 1795, while recovering from typhoid fever, Jenner devised another experiment similar to the one he carried out on his son. Jenner would inoculate a healthy person who had never had smallpox with cowpox and once they had recovered he would variolate them with smallpox. If the variolation didn’t take it would mean that cowpox conferred immunity against smallpox.
In May 1796 Jenner found two suitable candidates, a young boy to be inoculated and a young milkmaid to act as the donor of cowpox. The young boy who was inoculated developed cowpox and in July once he had recovered Jenner variolated him with smallpox. As Jenner had predicted the boy did not develop any signs of the disease.
Jenner spent the next couple of months preparing a paper on his experiment for publication. However, the President of the Royal Society rejected the paper stating that Jenner needed more cases.
It was another two years before Jenner accumulated sufficient cases and he then published his work privately.
Jenner’s method of vaccination is the only method medicine has yet devised to prevent the onset of an infectious disease. And in 1977 the last case of smallpox was reported in Somalia.
Some physicians attempted to discredit Jenner reporting that some patients developed animal features after being inoculated with cowpox. Others attempted to take credit for the discovery themselves. Despite this, “[t]here can be no doubt that without Jenner’s continued personal effort and his political skill […] vaccination would not have become firmly established in medical practice.”
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
hi kira
Just acknowledging your invitation here and repeating what i sent on the other one:
I received your invitation. You might like to go to your "dashboard" and upload a photo under "Edit Profile" - see links on left hand side.
John
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