** Thanks for downloading this episode. If you'd like to stay in touch with our continuing story, Season 2 continues at This Medical Life, in which Dr Travis Brown continues his exploration of diseases and our approaches to treatment from history to the modern day. Have a look in your podcast app now for This Medical Life, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode **

Smallpox was a devastating disease described as the scourge of the world. 

The Variola virus was responsible for countless deaths from antiquity to the twentieth century and left most survivors with lifelong scars.

Using Variolation, a primitive form of vaccination, our ancestors attempted to blunt the full force of Smallpox infections.

However, it wasn’t until the twentieth century and using modern day vaccination techniques that we were able to achieve a monumental milestone and eradicate this disease. 

** Thanks for downloading this episode. If you'd like to stay in touch with our continuing story, Season 2 continues at <a href="https://thismedicallife.com.au/">This Medical Life</a>, in which Dr Travis Brown continues his exploration of diseases and our approaches to treatment from history to the modern day. Have a look in your podcast app now for This Medical Life, and hit subscribe so you never miss an episode **
Smallpox was a devastating disease described as the scourge of the world. 
The Variola virus was responsible for countless deaths from antiquity to the twentieth century and left most survivors with lifelong scars.
Using Variolation, a primitive form of vaccination, our ancestors attempted to blunt the full force of Smallpox infections.
However, it wasn’t until the twentieth century and using modern day vaccination techniques that we were able to achieve a monumental milestone and eradicate this disease.

Welcome to the This Medical Life podcast. Our mission is to share stories about the triumphs and tragedies of diseases and illnesses from ancient times up until what we know today. It is about those scientific and medical minds who came before us and how, every single day, we stand on the shoulders of giants. This is a podcast about the stories of medicine.


Hosted by Dr. Travis Brown and Steve Davis, our target audience is General Practitioners, medical students, and other health professionals. We hope to educate, inspire and celebrate those who choose to care for others in their profession. From experience, we know that our audience extends beyond these fields and would like to welcome anyone to listen. The stories of those who came before us are nothing short of remarkable and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Production by Tim Whiffen

Design by Tom Buzz