Smallpox Dbq

The Colonial period was started in the 18th century based on the political, social and economical reasons in the thirteen colonies. The colonists began colonization of America by refusing the nobilities and monarchies of Great Britain. During that period, an epidemic disease called smallpox was spread devastatingly and frequently. Smallpox was an enormously contagious disease caused by a specific type of virus variola which spread into the thirteen American colonies. The disease was new in the country, and it took place in Boston, Massachussetts first, and spreading the virus made a severe threat all over. It began with infection mainly in the blood vessels of the human skin and mouth, and resulted in different kinds of symptoms for turning

Within 2 days from exposure smallpox vaccine could prevent or reduce the severity in the huge number of colonists. Inoculation treatment was mostly supportive between the days of exposure which provided some protection to modify the disease’s spread in that period. As well, the inoculation method helped wound care, infection control and therapy from burning skin. Smallpox took the colonists into mode of the death due to loss of fluids, poor immune reaction and infection in multiple organs of human body. Besides, smallpox disease developed into other complications even after the inoculation, such as stubby fingers, limiting joint movements etc. Due to the smallpox epidemic threat, the inoculation procedure got popular in other places and for other similar diseases. The benefits of inoculation outweighed the risks for children. Boylston figured out inoculation could produce certain type of immunity for the virus which can terminate the infection and save lives. Also, he ensured from his experiments that the inoculation process had less fatal structure of the disease in the human body. The author illustrated that several obstacles were overtaken to prevent the outbreak from spreading, a contamination which infected numerous people in 1721, and there were many controversies about the inoculation process and experimentation to inoculate the disease into a healthy person. The inoculation process was harmless and had satisfied the safety of the patients with the experiment. This inoculation method showed a huge result of survival rate in the New England colonies. The death rate was reduced by a greater number and the survival rate increased vastly because of Boylston’s inoculation for smallpox disease. This life saving scheme raised the population growth in those years of the Colonial