Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
  • Subscribe BJGP on YouTube
Intended for Healthcare Professionals
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • BJGP LIFE
  • MORE
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • eLetters
    • Alerts
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Librarian information
    • Resilience
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
Life & Times

Books: Angel of Death. The Story of Smallpox

Lessons from a Previous Pandemic

Sophie Rowlands
British Journal of General Practice 2020; 70 (699): 507. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X712481
Sophie Rowlands
Coachmans Medical Practice, West Sussex; Education and Training Team, Royal College of General Practitioners Junior International Committee. Email:
Roles: GP
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: drsophierowlands@gmail.com@DrSRowlands
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading
Gareth Williams Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, PB, 456pp, £10.99, 978-0230274716
Figure

Angel of Death provides a very comprehensive history of smallpox and vaccine development, which has parallels with the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The book outlines how smallpox, present for several millennia, was nicknamed the ‘Angel of Death’ due to a case fatality rate of up to 50%. As well as high mortality, smallpox also led to severe disfigurement in many survivors, and was highly infectious, remaining viable on objects for up to 2 years. With no effective treatment, periodic outbreaks were part of life. The author details how variolation, which had been ongoing for many years in parts of Asia and Africa, found its way to North America and Europe in the 17th century, providing some immunity, at the cost of triggering outbreaks.

In answer to this problem, vaccination was discovered in the late 18th century. Edward Jenner is commonly known as the ‘father of vaccination’, although the author argues that ‘midwife’ would be a more apt term. Jenner was the first to publish about vaccination and deliver it safely to the world, but it had been known for many years that cowpox was protective.

Alongside the birth of vaccination came the anti-vaxxer movement. The book offers a very detailed insight into how this movement gained momentum, and key issues which still hamper vaccination campaigns to this day, for example, unintended side effects, and compulsion to vaccinate versus the right to choose. In the early days, issues such as erysipelas and the spread of syphilis were rare side effects of smallpox vaccination.

In 1979, smallpox became the first (and only) disease to be successfully eliminated globally by vaccination. The book ends with a cautionary tale about how daily life could be seriously impacted if smallpox was to recur and cause a pandemic. Many of these fears have come to fruition with COVID-19, albeit thankfully with a far less deadly pathogen.

Figure

Footnotes

  • This article was first posted on BJGP Life on 26 July 2020; https://bjgplife.com/angel

  • © British Journal of General Practice 2020
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 70 (699)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 70, Issue 699
October 2020
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Download PowerPoint
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Books: Angel of Death. The Story of Smallpox
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Books: Angel of Death. The Story of Smallpox
Sophie Rowlands
British Journal of General Practice 2020; 70 (699): 507. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp20X712481

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
Books: Angel of Death. The Story of Smallpox
Sophie Rowlands
British Journal of General Practice 2020; 70 (699): 507. DOI: 10.3399/bjgp20X712481
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
    • Footnotes
  • Figures & Data
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

  • Three novels for planetary health
  • 75 years of the NHS: but how many of our patients do we still keep sick?
  • 75 years on and it’s business as unusual
Show more Life & Times

Related Articles

Cited By...

Intended for Healthcare Professionals

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

Tweets by @BJGPjournal

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7400
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2023 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242