Page 97 - Historical Fiction.pdf

Y o u 'r e
I n v i t e d
t o a (Po x )
Pa r t y
W e 'l l Pa r t y Y o u t o
De a t h
BY GABBY MARTIN
relieved that you and your family will still see each
other when this is all over. Until, on the last day, your
sibling starts to have a very itchy throat. It gets worse
as the day goes on and nothing has helped. Soon, your
sibling stops breathing. The medics confirm that they
are dead. The bumps had closed up the airways in the
throat. You think, ?It should have been me. They didn?t
deserve this.? The rest of your family had made it out
alive but they would always remember how bad the
smallpox disease really is. Now that you have gotten
smallpox once you won?t get it again. You are lucky.
The year is 1789. The smallpox vaccine has just been
invented. You think, ?Finally. The pox parties can end.?
More and more people are now getting the vaccine but Smallpox vs. Chickenpox
some people don?t think the vaccine can help so they
still hold pox parties. When you have children, would
you get the vaccine or attend another pox party? The
choice is yours.
Imagine you are a person living in which is flat spots which change into raised bumps The Good, The Bad of the Parties
then firm fluid filled blisters which then scab. If
the 1770?s. You and your family are
exposed to the smallpox disease. In someone had it worse then they would have a lot of Before the smallpox and chickenpox vaccine
order to escape the wrath of skin rash and it would sometimes spread to the throat was created, pox parties were held to build up
smallpox you have decided to attend which made it hard to breath and their throat always immunity to the disease and virus. Even after the
a pox party at a local slave owner's itches. This is how most people died. Few would just vaccine was created pox parties were still held
house. You and about 30 others are die from the disease itself. Now, these parties are called because some people did not want to get the
gathered in a room to be infected. chickenpox parties. Chickenpox parties now are more
for just kids and not adults. Parents invite kids to their vaccine or they could not pay for it. Catching
Once you have been infected you chickenpox once or getting a vaccine against the
begin to live out your life as you house to get the kids infected. People also mail items virus makes most healthy people immune for life.
normally would in the house. You are the infected child has touched to someone so they get (Johnson What are the risks and benefits of pox
here for about 2 weeks. The slaves the sickness as well. They do not last nearly as long as
are taking of you and getting you they used too. parties?) If someone gets the vaccine, they still
everything you need. As the days go have a chance to get the disease or virus but with
by you symptoms. You have a few milder symptoms. Pox parties can be very
bumps on your skin and it?s hard to harmful. People who get infected with the disease
breathe. You then wonder, ?Will I live or virus will get the full effect and may still have
to see the end of this?? All you can do complications after getting the disease or virus.
is hope. People can also
Over the course of the next few get the disease so
days you get better while others get bad that they end
worse. You now have fewer bumps up dying. This
and it?s easier to breathe. There have does not happen
now been a few deaths in the house when getting
but none were your family. You are so
chickenpox, it
Illust rat ion of t wo diseases. Smallpox (left )
The Not So Fun Parties only happens with
and chickenpox (right ). smallpox.
Pox parties were very popular during the
Revolutionary War. This was used to help fight the Solving the Problem
smallpox disease because the vaccine was not created The Smallpox Virus
until 1789. A group of people from a similar place would Their were a few different ways smallpox was
come together at one household and live there for treated including pox parties. One way to treat this
about 2 weeks. They would purposely give the group disease was bloodletting from the tongue. Another way
smallpox in order to get lifelong immunity from it. In to prevent the disease is the smallpox inoculation.
that time, it was better to get it sooner rather than This needle would pierce the skin. This was their form
later. of vaccine to protect the people from smallpox.
(Smallpox: inoculation and vaccination
Bloodlet t ing is t he wit hdrawal of
blood from a pat ient t o prevent or
During a smallpox party, there was a routine. The
cure illness and disease. The
people would do the same thing every day. Throughout
Smallpox inoculat ion was t he first
the day, everyone would socialize and they would
always be close so if one person ended up with successful vaccine t o be developed .
The last nat ural
smallpox, everyone would get smallpox. Some people It was creat ed by Edward Jenner in
got it worse than others. If someone was lucky they occurrence of smallpox.
1796.
would have minor symptoms of smallpox like fever and
malaise. There would be some widespread skin rash