The 14th May marks the day that the world’s first ever vaccination as a preventative treatment for smallpox was administered by Doctor Edward Jenner, in 1796 in Gloucestershire right here in the UK.
Edward Jenner is remembered as the pioneer of the smallpox vaccination and the father of the science of Immunology. Smallpox was the most feared and greatest killer of the time. As deadly as cancer or heart disease today. It killed 10% of the population, rising to 20% in towns and cities where infection spread easily. Among children, it accounted for one in three of all deaths.
In 1798, the results of Jenner’s experiment were finally published and Jenner coined the word vaccine from the Latin ‘vacca’ for cow as the original experiment involved a cowpox pustule being injected into a child’s arm.
Today, 220 years since that day, medicines have continued to develop. Clinical trials taking place worldwide have led to treatments and vaccinations for hundreds of conditions, helping to make the world a healthier place.
Leading on from Edward Jenner’s first vaccination 220 years ago, we continue to perform clinical trials along with our superb volunteers looking into ways of improving medicines and helping to find treatments to improve lives worldwide.