Suffering with two dissimilar diseases
Dinesh Kumar Jain in Homeopathy, 2022
Hahnemann concluded that cowpox and smallpox both prevent the development of one other. Both diseases have similar symptomatology. So Hahnemann said that one disease homeopathically cured other diseases. Hahnemann gave emphasis on similar symptomatology, but what was the truth? It was not the similarity in symptomatology of cowpox and smallpox, which cured each other. It was the immunological and serological similarity of both types of viruses. Smallpox is due to variola virus. Cowpox is also a viral disease. By knowledge of pathology, we know, “Cowpox virus resembles that of smallpox morphologically and immunologically and the histological changes in the skin at the site of vaccination are essentially identical with those of smallpox” (Pinkerton, 1971, p. 394).
Smallpox
Scott M. Jackson in Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology, 2023
Enter Edward Jenner (1749–1823). Jenner was an English physician from Gloucestershire who once apprenticed under the great English surgeon John Hunter. He had diverse interests in such fields as zoology (he studied and published research on the cuckoo bird), geology, poetry, and hot air balloons. According to the oft-repeated legend, Jenner's contributions to the history of smallpox began with a conversation between a 13-year-old Jenner and a milkmaid who told him that she could not get smallpox because she had had cowpox. Cowpox was an ulcerative disease of cow udders that caused blisters, pustules, and ulcers of the hand and arm, along with swollen glands and fever, resulting from direct contact with the cow's infected parts. Because milkmaids were known for their beauty and flawless complexion, Jenner subsequently got the idea to variolate a person with cowpox in order to prevent smallpox. The term he used for this process is vaccination, a word that derives from the Latin vacca, meaning cow. The practice of vaccination was preferable to variolation because it was much safer and could not trigger an outbreak of smallpox.
Cidofovir and Brincidofovir
M. Lindsay Grayson, Sara E. Cosgrove, Suzanne M. Crowe, M. Lindsay Grayson, William Hope, James S. McCarthy, John Mills, Johan W. Mouton, David L. Paterson in Kucers’ The Use of Antibiotics, 2017
The activity of CDV against orthopoxviruses has been assessed in several animal models using mice (most frequently), rabbits, or monkeys (Smee, 2008; Smee and Sidwell, 2003). Treatment of vaccinia virus infections has been well studied in models involving infection either of scarified skin, or resulting from intravenous, intraperitoneal, intracerebral or intranasal virus inoculation (see Table 216.3). Cowpox virus has been used in intranasal or aerosol infection studies to evaluate the treatment with CDV of lethal respiratory infections. Rabbitpox, monkeypox, and variola (smallpox) viruses have been employed to a lesser extent than the other viruses. The efficacy of topical CDV against orf virus in lambs has been described (Scagliarini et al., 2007). Two reviews have extensively revised the activity of CDV and other drugs active against orthopoxviruses in animal models (Smee, 2008; Smee and Sidwell, 2003). CDV prophylaxis of nonhuman primates exposed to large quantities of monkeypox virus or variola virus completely protected the animals, with no signs of illness and control of viral replication in blood, while the placebo-treated animals had > 850 lesions and levels of virus in blood > 107 genomes/ml. CDV treatment as late as 48 hours after infection also reduced viral load and lesions count (Huggins et al., 2004).
A Belgian student with black eschars
Published in Acta Clinica Belgica, 2023
Astrid Van Reempts, Liesbet De Meester, Koen Blot, Ann-Sophie Candaele, Hilde Beele, Jo Van Dorpe, Diana Huis in ‘t Veld
Human cowpox is a rare viral zoonosis. Cowpox virus is a member of the Orthopoxvirus genus, like the variola (smallpox) virus which was globally eradicated in 1980 by mass vaccination. Cowpox virus is endemic in wildlife in Europe and the adjacent parts of Asia. Despite the name, the asymptomatic natural reservoir hosts are wild rodents, especially bank voles and wood mice [1–3]. Historically, the name of the cowpox virus derives from the fact that animal to human transmission of this virus was observed in dairy maids who had direct contact with lesions on teats of infected cows, although infections in cows are not common [3]. Its resemblance to the mild form of smallpox and the observation that dairy farmers were immune to smallpox, inspired the English physician Edward Jenner to create the smallpox vaccine. The word ‘vaccination’, mentioned for the first time by Jenner in 1796, is derived from ‘vaccinus’ a Latin adjective, meaning ‘of or from the cow’ [4].
Modern vaccine strategies for emerging zoonotic viruses
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2022
Atif Ahmed, Muhammad Safdar, Samran Sardar, Sahar Yousaf, Fiza Farooq, Ali Raza, Muhammad Shahid, Kausar Malik, Samia Afzal
The concept of vaccination had initiated during the 12th century when people used pustule liquid and skin lesions to produce immunity in the patient, but few patients got activation of immune responses [11,12]. The major issue with these primitive vaccines was extremely poor safety profiles, and many patients develop diseases from these inoculations [13]. Edward Jenner’s experiment to treat smallpox with cowpox lesions began an era of vaccinology; however, significant work was seen at the end of the 19th and the start of the 20th century when Pasteur and Koch do significant achievements in the field of vaccinology by developing vaccines against rabies, tuberculosis, pertussis, typhoid, and diphtheria [14]. They develop attenuated and killed/inactivated vaccines and treated many humans and animals. The attenuated vaccine produces long-term immunity with the production of a vigorous immune response both humoral and cell-mediated [15]. Similarly, killed vaccines have ease of production and development of protective immune responses in the host [9]. Later, few scientists studied the side effects of attenuated and inactivated vaccines. Apart from the robust immune response by attenuated vaccines, reversion to virulence is a serious issue [16,17]. However, the killed vaccine has good safety but stimulates low levels and short-term immunity [9]. The first generation of vaccine had improved from contaminated lesions to a well-developed vaccine at that time, but still, no progress in the viral vaccine had occurred.
In-depth review of delivery carriers associated with vaccine adjuvants: current status and future perspectives
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2023
Yarong Zeng, Feihong Zou, Ningshao Xia, Shaowei Li
The modern concept of vaccines emerged in the late 18th century when Edward Jenner successfully prevented smallpox infection by using pus from cowpox-infected milkmaids for vaccination. Early vaccines primarily consisted of whole organisms, developed to protect against pathogenic infections. However, as human society advanced, the concept of therapeutic vaccines surfaced. The inclusion of adjuvants, such as aluminum adjuvants, emulsions, liposomes, virosomes, and polymers, in vaccines can significantly enhance their efficacy and provide protection for immunocompromised populations. Adjuvants aim to improve immune responses by recruiting immune cells to the inoculation site, promoting antigen uptake by APCs, and activating innate immune cells. While conventional adjuvants can achieve this to some extent, the transient or weak adaptive immune response may not suffice against pathogenic microorganisms, such as viruses [132,133].
Related Knowledge Centers
- Fever
- Orthopoxvirus
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- Smallpox Vaccine
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- Skin Condition
- Vaccinia
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