[EPIDEMIOLOGICAL AND CLINICAL ASPECTS OF SMALLPOX IN THE LIGHT OF JEWISH SOURCES IN THE PERIOD PRIOR TO MODERN...

Europe was affected by a particularly severe outbreak of smallpox during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the early 18th century, the use of vaccines began to spread. The vaccines in use at that time were not risk free, and both post-vaccine mortality and the risk of spreading the disease to the non-vaccinated population were a matter of public concern. The Jewish documents reviewed in this article present epidemiological and clinical information on smallpox among European Jewish communities in the last decades of the 18th century. These documents provide a useful tool for historical research in that they shed light on, and provide a source of information about the spread of the disease, and the various measures aimed at preventing its spread including vaccination, among Jewish communities at the time.