Chronicling the pandemics and humans’ counterattack, writes Subrata Roy

April 13: The etymological origin of the term ‘virus’ can be traced back to Latin language which connotes ‘poison’. This poison, down the ages, has poisoned people’s lives, throughout the history of human civilization. Likewise, the horrible super nucleus enemy over the span of time has evolved into varied forms, different names that have been defeated by human beings themselves at times of fatal crisis. Today, in an era of scientific upsurge and reasonability, people all over the globe can’t help but looking forward to a silver lining; a fecund antidote to the novel corona virus.

Right now, this news alone can fetch a sense of consolatory redemption to the lives of billions of people in the world. Scientists are not sitting indolently; rather they have been toiling day and night to throttle such dreadful anti-human organisms. The night of the nightmare is a little longer. Still, that day is certainly not far away, when the news of a possible vaccine or medicine will flash. So concisely out of many let us revisit the chronicles of human triumph over such fatal virus, written by the times, by the human beings and by the ages.

The deadly infectious disease of Smallpox is known to many. For many centuries Smallpox was the name of a great terror. The virus responsible for Smallpox is named Variola major. Once it became infected, the locale would become desolate and the epidemic centre of place would turn into an absolute dead city — where people would struggle to find even a single living soul for the burial of dead. In the twenty-first century alone, millions of people lost their lives. It would have killed 3 out of every 3 people. The infant mortality rate would have dropped by more than 5 percent. Many of those who survived would either become blind or otherwise would suffer uncomfortable permanent spots throughout their lives. Today, this terrible disease has taken shelter in the pages of history.

British doctor Edward Jenner once noticed surprisingly that the Cow-maid people who were infected with Cowpox were not infected with Smallpox. Experimentally, on 14th may 1796 Dr Jenner took a small amount of fresh pus fluid from a girl who was 7 years old suffering from Cowpox and injected into the body of a 5-year-old boy, James Phipps who was suffering from Smallpox. Then the doctor noticed that the boy was perfectly healed after 9 days simply suffering from mild fever associated with some sort of physical discomfort only. About two months later, in July, this time he injected fresh fluid in a purified form extracted from the infected site of Smallpox into the body of the same boy.

Surprisingly after two months Dr Jenner observed that the boy did not suffer from Smallpox at all, rather his experimental purified form of infusion created resistance inside the body of that boy. He made sure that he found invaluable drugs. Thus was born Smallpox vaccine or vaccine, and a great man named in the pages of history who is entitled as the “father of immunology” since then. By the way of his invention, it had been possible to eradicate the epidemical foe from the earth saving the lives of billions of people.

The day was July 7, 1885; a mother from far away came to the lab of the scientist Louis Pastor in the city of Paris. She was accompanied by her six-year-old son Joseph Meister. Two days ago, on the way to school, this boy was bitten by a dog. Doctors said in a single statement that there was absolutely no chance of the boy’s survival since the boy had five bite marks on his body in tote. In such bite, his virulent disease would soon spread, and the boy would die in sore throats in unbearable agony. At that time, human beings had no idea how to prevent the rabies virus. Three to five days after the symptoms of rabies, the patient died of acute soreness and paralysis, with distress. Countless people die every year in the horror.

Louis Pastor had long been trying to find a cure for this deadly disease. He dried the bone marrow of rabbits infected with rabies virus and applied the weakened form of substances to the body of infected dogs as a vaccine. It’s occasionally true that often poison kills poison and makes pill for others to heal. However, Dr Pastor immediately realized that he had discovered the drug to cure the terror. The rest was remaining then just to testify its effectiveness in the human body.

Meanwhile, when a helpless mother stepped at the door of Pastor with the sole hope of returning the child from an imminent death, the mother was forced to apply experimentally his own antidote to the boy’s body. Over the next few days, a certain dose of antibiotic vaccine healed the boy and brought smiles to the overclouded mother. Discovery is an effective anti-vaccine and by the times another deadly viral disease inflicted by humans too.

Another form of dreadful virus is Polio. The full name for this deadly viral disease is poliomyelitis. People were left paralyzed, and even if they survived, they had to lead a life of paralysis. They would nullify the nervous system. It is worthy to note that most of the children under the age of five were/are the victims of the virus. So another name for this is ‘Children’s Paralysis’. One or more organs of the infected child become dysfunctional. Parents and relatives have to witness the brutal death of a child when the breathing muscles are exhausted. More than 5% of polio patients do not have visible symptoms.

In the early twentieth century, the prevalence of polio hiked in the continents of Europe and America, and widespread panic ensued. One of the famous victims of the polio virus was former US President Franklin Roosevelt. It was 1921 when he was 39 years old, not elected as president. Roosevelt’s legs were completely stagnant in the attack because of no polio treatment.

Many scientists came forward to overcome such a cursed virus. One of them is Jonas Salk, a man who discovered a safe and effective antidote to the polio virus was released in 1953. Salk was the first scientist who inhibited the growth of polio virus in host cells by using formalin. Later, injecting the virus into a healthy human body, he noticed that the body had developed an excellent defense mechanism against polio by preparing antibodies. This pious man with a big heart did not benefit from it, even though he invented a weapon capable of defeating polio, the enemy of humanity. Even he did not patent his invention in his name. Another scientist, Albert Sabin, later invented a simpler formulation, more affordable oral polio vaccine rather than infusion.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) took a major initiative in 1988 to eradicate polio from the world. As a result of the global efforts, statistically the number of infectious rate drastically dropped from 1.5lacs to 3k every year and only 416 infected people were reported in 2013. The once-horrifying polio is now a forgotten chapter in history.

In this background, we can surly be inspired by historical achievement of science cited above, cultured by human beings where from we can certainly hope that, even in the outbreak of corona virus pandemic, very soon, somewhere in the world, some scientific minds like dragoman will avowedly enlighten the flame of hope in real sense for the existence of mankind because there is always a ray of light at the end of every tunnel. At the end of the day, the most superior of creatures, that is, humans have to incline towards science and its aura which has served to be their saviour since time immemorial. Thus, we need to hold on to the conviction that, after a hurricane, comes a rainbow.