The earliest forms of immunisation recorded involved Buddhist monks drinking snake venom to confer immunity to snake bites and variolation, i.e. the smearing of a skin tear with cowpox in order to confer immunity to smallpox.
Vaccines were unheard of until 1796 when Edward Jenner, widely considered the founder of vaccination in the West, inoculated a 13-year-old boy with the Vaccinia virus, which is part of the poxvirus family, and caused him to develop immunity to smallpox.
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