The boy suddenly suffers from a strange, extinct disease from the 18th century

The disease has not appeared for a long time, but suddenly it happened unexpectedly.

Recently, Chester hospital in Wales (England) suddenly received a strange case. The patient was a 15-year-old teenager, his hands and feet floating like smallpox. Only after testing is it not smallpox but another similar disease, named cowpox (cowpox).

The disease seems to have become extinct since the 18th century, and the most recent case of cowpox has occurred 10 years ago, but it is also extremely rare.

Simulation of cowpox - cowpox.

"My son is really embarrassed. The notes look pretty bad, and it makes him uncomfortable," his mother said.

It takes a few weeks, the cowpox notes disappear. Fortunately, the nodules are not painful, but they are just as itchy.

The cause of the disease was previously thought to be due to contact with cattle, specifically cows, because the disease originated from a virus spread from animals to humans. However, it was later discovered that viruses spread from cat feces and rat droppings rather than cows.

The disease has an important role in history

Do you know the term "vaccine" ? It actually comes from a Latin word, vaccinus, meaning "cow" .

The reason people choose this word is because of Dr. Edward Jenner. He was the first person to have the idea of ​​directly introducing germs into humans to create immunity, and it came from the same smallpox that crawled in the hands of the milker at that time.

This disease seems to have become extinct since the 18th century.

Then it was Jenner who realized that people who milked smallpox cows seemed to have less risk of getting really deadly disease than smallpox (smallpox) . Since then, he created the first vaccine for humanity, which is the vaccine to treat smallpox.

In other words, cowpox is an important disease for world medical history. And in return, the experts have helped the disease almost sink into the past.

"There are about 29 cases of cowpox in the 1975 - 1992 period," said Roberth Smith, an expert from the Wales Ministry of Public Health. Even if the boy is sick, it is still not enough to conclude that the disease is back on track. At least until now.