A microorganism has been used scientifically to eradicate smallpox. Its history dates back to the early 19th century and remains a scientific mystery to this day.
In 19th century England, a procedure was born that until now was completely unknown, but that would nevertheless change the course of science around the world. A small group of doctors began to experiment by catching a virus that infected cattle and used to fight a “cousin” of that pathogen, smallpox. This technique was called “vaccination”, from the Latin “vaccinus”, meaning “from a cow”.
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In this way, the group of doctors was able to verify that 95% of the people were protected from an infection that until then had killed 30% of its victims, and left the rest with serious consequences. To this day, no one knows for sure where the virus that managed to eradicate smallpox came from.
However, this microbe continues to be used today, including for vaccines that scientists are currently working on to combat monkeypox, since a global health emergency was declared by the WHO (World Health Organization).
After several cases were found mainly in Africa, in May of this year the so-called monkeypox began to spread to the rest of the world. To combat it, doctors and scientists turned to two previously used vaccines: ACAM2000 and JYNNEOS.
Both vaccines are safe and highly effective. However, they are also part of this story. Over the span of a century, the scientific world revealed that smallpox was made from cowpox. However, in 1939, tests revealed that this was not exactly the case.
The reality is that the vaccines that were used to eradicate smallpox and that are still used today are of unknown origin. It is a “ghost pathogen” that could only be found in vaccine form. Although the search for this antibody is more than 80 years old, no one knows exactly when it began to appear, even more so if it still exists in nature.
The only thing that is certain is its level of effectiveness. Millions of people who lived under the threat of smallpox managed to survive thanks to this unknown microorganism. Without their existence, monkeypox would likely have spread more quickly.
“For many years, until 1939, people assumed that what we call vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine, was the same as cowpox,” says José Esparza, virologist and member of the Robert Koch Institute in Germany, and concludes. : “And then it was discovered that they were different. And we have since accepted that cowpox is a virus and vaccinia is another virus of unknown origin.”
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