Smallpox death rate in Germany and Austria 1844-1899

In human history, smallpox has been one of the most widespread and lethal diseases to occur in nature, taking hundreds of millions of lives across the globe before it was successfully eradicated in the twentieth century. Although an effective smallpox vaccine was first developed in England in 1796, it would take over a century for the vaccine to be understood and implemented across Europe. While the vaccine was discovered in England, it was in Germany where the practice of vaccination first took off on a large scale, and where the importance of revaccination was discovered.Bavaria leads in vaccination developmentThe state of Bavaria was the first in Germany (and second in the world, after Iceland) to introduce mandatory smallpox vaccination for newborns. This was reflected in them generally having the lowest number of smallpox deaths in Europe in the mid-1800s. Before the vaccination era, infants and children were generally the most at risk of dying from smallpox infection; vaccination caused these death rates to plummet, however it then presented microbiologists with a new challenge. As the century progressed, the smallpox death rate among young adults increased and it became apparent that vaccination in infancy would not last until adulthood, thus the need for revaccination emerged, with Bavaria again at the forefront.The German Vaccination Law of 1874It was during the great pandemic of the 1870s The German Vaccination Law of April 8, 1874 was passed; where all children under the age of two, and any unvaccinated child under the age of twelve had to be vaccinated by law. From this year we can see a sharp decrease in the death rate due to smallpox, where it remains consistently low for the remainder of the century. The introduction of this law brought the smallpox death rates in all German states in line with those of Bavaria, with the death rate in Württemberg dropping even below that of Bavaria. In contrast to Germany, mandatory smallpox vaccination was never introduced in Austria, and we can see that the death rate due to smallpox in Austria remained much higher than in Germany for the remainder of the century.

在人类历史长河中，天花作为一种广泛流行且致命的自然疫病，曾夺走数亿人的生命，直至二十世纪才得以成功根除。尽管有效的天花疫苗最早于1796年在英格兰研制成功，但直到一个多世纪后，疫苗才在欧洲得到广泛理解和实施。尽管疫苗的发现地是英格兰，但德国却成为了大规模疫苗接种实践的发源地，并在那里发现了复种的重要性。巴伐利亚在疫苗接种发展中的领先地位巴伐利亚州是德国（以及世界第二，仅次于冰岛）第一个对新生儿实施强制天花疫苗接种的州。这反映在中世纪1800年代，巴伐利亚的天花死亡率在欧洲最低。在天花疫苗接种时代之前，婴幼儿是感染天花死亡风险最高的群体；然而，疫苗接种使得这些死亡率大幅下降，同时也为微生物学家带来了新的挑战。随着世纪的推移，年轻人的天花死亡率上升，且疫苗接种在婴儿时期的效用并不能持续至成年，因此复种的需求应运而生，巴伐利亚再次走在前列。1874年的德国疫苗接种法在1870年代的大流行期间，1874年4月8日通过的德国疫苗接种法规定，所有两岁以下儿童以及所有未接种的十二岁以下儿童必须依法接种疫苗。从这一年开始，我们可以看到天花死亡率急剧下降，并在整个世纪中保持持续的低水平。该法律的颁布使得德国各州的天花死亡率与巴伐利亚持平，甚至符腾堡的死亡率还低于巴伐利亚。相比之下，奥地利从未引入强制天花疫苗接种，我们可以看到，在整个世纪中，奥地利的天花死亡率始终远高于德国。