Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Joseph Balmis

  • Francisco Javier de Balmis and the first international vaccination campaign

    Arpan K. BanerjeeSolihull, England Smallpox was a human scourge until the early nineteenth century. It had caused almost half a million deaths in Europe alone when Edward Jenner introduced vaccination into clinical practice in 1798 with his famous publication “An enquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae” and the 1801 publication “The…