Prevalence of smallpox and its treatment methods in Qajar era Iran  with emphasis on the states of Kermanshahan and Hamedan

Alibeigi, Hossain; Shohani, Sarah

doi:10.22103/jic.2024.23893.1353

Prevalence of smallpox and its treatment methods in Qajar era Iran with emphasis on the states of Kermanshahan and Hamedan

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Hossain Alibeigi ¹
Sarah Shohani ²

¹ Department of History, Faculty of Literature, Razi University, Kermanshah

² , Department of History, Islamic Azad University of SanandajKermanshah

10.22103/jic.2024.23893.1353

Abstract

One of the causes of premature deaths in Iran during the Qajar era was the spread of contagious diseases. During this period, Iran generally did not have favorable health conditions and its western regions, especially the states of Kermanshah and Hamadan, were always exposed to the spread of infectious diseases such as smallpox due to their location on the middle rivers. Smallpox as a contagious disease has caused many outbreaks and deaths among children throughout history among most societies, and among contagious diseases; This disease is the most destructive of this type of disease due to its effects on different parts of the body. This caused the government to make efforts to deal with it and pass laws to control it. With a descriptive-analytical approach and relying on unpublished archival documents and Qajar era newspapers, this research answers the question that the outbreak of smallpox in Kermanshahan and Hamadan states was affected by what factors? What are the most important measures of the Qajar government to curb it? The results showed that ignorance and illiteracy, superstition, low level of medical knowledge, bad weather, weak performance of kings and local rulers in making appropriate and timely decisions to prevent the spread of this disease were the main factors of its occurrence, and the governance In order to control and curb it, he imposed regulations such collecting fines, collecting taxes from vehicles and allocating them to treatment, free injections, not accepting students without smallpox injections, purchasing equipment and informing in the newspaper.

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