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Essay On Vaccination

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Vaccinations played a substantial role in the eradication of smallpox. Before its eradication in 1980, smallpox was a terror that effected many people. Of those who contracted the disease, 30% died. Most of the people who survived had deep, pit-like scars for the rest of their lives (“Smallpox Disease Overview”). In 1751, London alone reported 3,538 deaths due to smallpox (“All Timelines Overview”). Edward Jenner, an English country doctor, developed a vaccine for smallpox in 1796. Jenner used the pus from cowpox sores to build up immunity to smallpox. Cowpox is a relatively harmless disease that was common among milkmaids of Jenner’s day. Following Jenner’s success, use of the vaccination quickly spread across the world. In the late 1960’s, the World Health Organization (WHO) began to push for eradication using mass vaccination of individuals in epidemic countries. Due to the plans used by WHO and other organizations smallpox was eradicated. The only samples that exist are kept in high security labs in Atlanta, Georgia and Novosibirsk, Siberia. Had eradication …show more content…

These diseases are very rare in the United States but outbreaks still occur around the globe in Africa, Asia and Europe. In the U.S., vaccinations can protect individuals and communities in the event that disease is transported to the United States. If immunization rates decrease, then one exposure could quickly escalate to epidemic proportions. If no one is immunized against a disease that still exists somewhere in the world, then America will be no better off than before the vaccine was developed. According to the Center for Disease Control, most of the polio and measles outbreaks that occur in the U.S. result from overseas exposure that is then transported into the country (“What Would Happen”). Vaccinations cannot be abandoned until eradication is completely

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