History and eradication of smallpox in Turkey
Osman Şadi Yenenİstanbul University
İstanbul Medical Faculty
Department of Medical Microbiology
Çapa, İstanbul, Turkey
Email: yenen@istanbul.edu.tr
Microbiology Australia 35(3) 156-164 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA14054
Published: 8 September 2014
Abstract
Turkey has played a prominent role for the Western World in the prevention of disease from two different angles. The first is the İstanbul connection from where the variolation originated. The Ankara connection, on the other hand, provided the source for the modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara (MVA) as both the third generation smallpox vaccine and the recombinant vector for modern day vaccine development. In this article, the history of disease and eradication efforts both in the Ottoman Empire and in the Republic era of Turkey will be discussed with an emphasis on the worldwide significance of İstanbul and Ankara connections in the history of smallpox.
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