Vaccination disease people tried to prevent by inoculation and was the first disease for which a vaccine was produced. The smallpox vaccine was invented in 1796 by English physician Edward Jenner and although at least six people had used the same principles years earlier he was the first to publish evidence that it was effective and to provide advice on its production. Louis Pasteur furthered the concept through his work in microbiology. The immunization was called "vaccination" because it was derived from a virus affecting cows ( 'cow'). Smallpox was a contagious and deadly disease, causing the deaths of 20–60% of
Smallpox vaccine 1970s. Calf lymph was known as early as 1805 in Italy, but it was the Lyon Medical Conference of 1864 which made the technique known to the wider world. In 1898 calf lymph became the standard method of vaccination for smallpox in the United Kingdom, when arm to arm vaccination was eventually banned (due to complications such as the simultaneous transmission of syphilis). Although Jenner used cowpox, the vaccine now contains a virus immunologically related to cowpox and smallpox viruses called vaccinia which causes a mild infection. The vaccine is infectious, which improves its effectiveness, but causes serious complications for