Imagine a quick spreading rash throughout the entire body, leaving not a single space behind; every opening and crevice in your body, including your mouth and eyes covered in painful bumps accompanied by high fever and severe body aches. Flat red spots transforming into fluid-filled lesions and soon oozing out yellow pus, evidently emitting a pungent odor to anyone who dared get close. The live virus present in the darkening crusty scabs that would soon fall off only to leave behind a deep pitted scarred filled complexion on anyone who was fortunate enough to survive. These scars would be forever remembered as the hallmark for the smallpox epidemic which tormented the world for over 3,000 years. (Riedel “Deadly Diseases”).
Smallpox Eradication Campaign is considered as one of the greatest success of the World Health Organization in its history. By mass vaccination decision, World Health Organization had eliminated the disease that killed hundreds of millions of people for the last 3,000
It's killed more than prostate cancer and breast cancer fatality rates together. Smallpox was the first disease to be eliminated from the world through public-health efforts and vaccination. Smallpox still poses a threat because existing laboratory strains may be used as biological weapons. Approximately one-third of people with smallpox died from the disease. Survivors were scarred for life. If the eye was infected, blindness often resulted.There are new experimental medications that might be effective in smallpox, but these have not been tested in human cases since the disease has been eradicated.The smallpox vaccine contains a live virus called vaccinia. It is administered by dipping a pronged piece of metal into the vaccine and then pricking the skin.
Despite smallpox’s long history of harm, killing nearly 300 million people in the twentieth century alone, it is now considered eradicated thanks to a vaccine and vaccination program lead by the World Health Organization. Because of its eradication,
The Vaccine Autism Connection Being a parent is a never ending full time job. Constantly on the run, doing laundry, making food, and wiping snotty noses, you are faced with decisions to make for your child every day. One of those important decisions is whether or not to vaccinate your child.
Smallpox Smallpox is a highly contagious and fatal disease; there is no treatment available to smallpox, and the only way to avoid this infection is through primary prevention measures of vaccination. Smallpox has two clinical forms, variola major (most common) and variola minor (least common) with a fatality rate of 30% and 1% respectively. Variola major has four types of smallpox, ordinary (accounts for 90% of the cases), modified (occurs in vaccinated individuals), hemorrhagic (severe and rare), and flat or malignant (rare and fatal). Smallpox has been declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980, and vaccination of the general public has stopped shortly after; nevertheless, it is an agent of bioterrorism that is available in laboratory stockpiles worldwide (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2004).
The History of Smallpox Abstract The history of smallpox goes back for thousands of years. It is thought to have appeared as much as 10,000 years ago and since then, it has claimed the lives of millions of people, many of whom have been famous figures in history. After a vaccine was discovered in 1796, countries throughout the world began the fight to eradicate the disease. This fight was won in 1980 as a result of the international effort headed by the World Health Organization. Today, smallpox is no longer a threat in nature but the virus is still stored in labs, from which a biological weapon could be made.
Known as ‘herd immunity’ or ‘community immunity,’ there lies an indirect protection of unvaccinated people when a large group of people is vaccinated against a certain disease. Therefore, if children are vaccinated against a disease, they are also protecting their family and friends. Additionally, according to Vaccines.gov, if enough people are vaccinated against a disease, about 80% of a population or less, the entire community has a lesser chance of getting the disease (Page 3). In other words, when a large age group of people, children, are vaccinated and therefore immune to disease, everyone else is protected as well indirectly. Furthermore, as well as unintentionally protecting peers who chose to be unvaccinated, children who are vaccinated are also protecting the subset of people that do not have the option to become vaccinated. There lies a small subset of people who cannot be vaccinated due to a variety of reasons including undergoing chemotherapy, or having severe allergies, HIV/AIDS, or even Type One Diabetes. The protection of these people is herd immunity (Epidemics: Opposing Viewpoints page 117). Concluding, by immunizing all youth, the compromised also become better protected as a whole. Also, one example of the representation in the introduction of of herd immunity is the pneumococcal vaccine. After the introduction of the
In India, when smallpox broke out, the blood from a survivor of the disease was rubbed in a cut on the skin of an uninfected person. An individual got infected with the disease but healed soon after. Throughout time, vaccinations have evolved through the work of scientists and doctors. In the 1700’s, Edward Jenner created the “vaccine” when he eliminated smallpox with cowpox. People were frightened of becoming a cow since the vaccination being inserted into their body contained a disease from a cow (Nova 1). Even though cowpox was completely harmless to the human body, people with strong religious views did not seem to think so. However, vaccinations have extremely improved from Jenner’s discovery. Vaccines now are safer with better
Vaccination programs rely on herd immunity to ensure optimal protection of a community from communicable
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
The Vaccination and Eradication of Smallpox Smallpox, a disease caused by the variola virus, has devastated humanity for many centuries. Because of its high mortality rate, civilizations around the world sought to protect themselves from this disease. Throughout the 1700's, these protective methods became more sophisticated, and led up to Edward Jenner’s vaccination method in 1796. Indeed, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and the Agency for International Development began a joint program to eradicate smallpox in 1967. It utilized methods of mass vaccination, surveillance, and containment. The endeavor was successful, and in 1980, WHO officially declared the eradication of smallpox.
Introduction Vaccines are the most effective way of preventing contaminating diseases, with measles vaccination alone has saved approximately 17.1 million lives since 2000. In fact 79% of deaths related to measles have decreased abundantly. Vaccines impersonate diseases and assists your immune system by creating a defence against these cells. The whole
Concept of herd immunity: is it waning? Herd immunity’ refers to the resistance of a group attacked by a disease because of the immunity of a large proportion of the members and the consequent lessening of the likelihood of an infected individual coming into contact with a susceptible individual 9. Herd immunity is achieved by mass immunization against communicable diseases 10. However, not all vaccines are equally effective in providing herd immunity. For instance, though mumps vaccine has been available for several decades, mumps continues to be highly prevalent in several regions of the world, likely due to waning immunity over time and inadequate immunization coverage.
Herd immunity is a form of immunity that happens when a high portion of a population has been vaccinated. It protects those that have not developed