Cattle being inoculated with smallpox for the production of a vaccine against the disease in Coamo Springs, Puerto Rico, in 1900. Smallpox is an often
Cattle being inoculated with smallpox for the production of a vaccine against the disease in Coamo Springs, Puerto Rico, in 1900. Smallpox is an often-fatal disease caused by the Variola virus. Prior to vaccination (first performed in 1796) it killed millions of people each year. After the US acquisition of Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War of 1898 the USA determined to vaccinate the whole population to prevent the frequent smallpox epidemics. Vaccines imported from the US mainland lost their potency in transit and so vaccine farms were set up with cattle donated by local farmers. The vaccination program was a success and deaths fell from an average of 621 a year before the program, to 242 in 1899, the first full year of the program, and were 0 in the first four months of 1990.
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Photo credit: © ***DEPENDS ON PIC***/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
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