The History of Vaccines and Immunization

The history of vaccinations begin with Edward Jenner, the country doctor from Gloucestershire who found, growing on cows, a nearly harmless virus the protected people from smallpox. Jenner’s vaccine was safer, more reliable, and more durable than variolation, and it is still the only vaccine to have eliminated its reason for being-in 1980, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease extinct. For nearly a century and a half, smallpox was the only vaccine routinely administered, and it saved millions of lives . But the controversy that marked the return of the vaccine, amid bioterrorism hysteria in 2002, was only the latest twist in the remarkable, mysterious life of vaccines.

Throughout history, vaccinations have been used to help the prevention of infectious diseases; some of which can produce serious illnesses, crippling disabilities, and ultimately be the cause of death. There is evidence of ancient culture’s attempting to treat transmittable diseases with various forms of inoculations. Developments in the research of vaccinations increased during the mid-twentieth century because of the established of more advanced laboratories, improved equipment, and new innovations. The progression of medicine during history has helped further the development of research into vaccinations. Several cultural, ethical, and religious issues have resulted from the development and use of vaccinations in our society. The topic of vaccinations has caused a strong debate amongst our culture about the safety and danger of treating infectious diseases with such methods.

Vaccinations have been actively used for over 200 years now and have been effective for over 200 years as well. Western medicine’s introduction to the practice is said to have occurred within the eighteenth century, when a traveling British aristocrat, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, reported her observations of Turkish children being injected with pus from smallpox victims. Although this practice seemed quite harsh, most of these children would contract only a mild version of the illness. In return, these recipients would retain a lifelong immunity to this terrible disease (World of Microbiology & Immunology). Similarly, in the United States, a Puritan minister by the name of Cotton Mather learned about inoculation from his African slave, Onesimus. Onesimus claimed that he was inoculated with smallpox pus and never caught the tragic disease (Williams). This type of medicinal treatment was initially rejected by most Western practitioners. They felt it was a dangerous and barbarous practice, but vaccination gained a tremendous amount of support at the turn of the nineteenth century when English physician Edward Jenner created a new smallpox vaccine derived from the relatively mild cowpox virus (Riedel). There’s no doubt that history has shown the positive outcomes of immunization and continued to show them as technology and medicine progressed.

Jenner began to inoculate against smallpox using Sutton's method, but he soon found some patients to be completely resistant to the disease. Upon investigation, he found that these patients had previously had cowpox. Jenner concluded that cowpox not only protected against smallpox, but also could be transferred from one human being to another as a deliberate mechanism of protection.

In the book, “Survival of the Sickest”, Sharon Moalem forms the basis of how vaccine originated to become a way of combatting the most dangerous diseases in the world. It began with a discovery from a man named Edward Jenner, a doctor from Gloucestershire county in England, where he began to understand a strange pattern when people who were immune to cowpox were struggling with smallpox and vice-versa. He started to test his findings through a small experiment where he injected cow pox into a group of young children and he was surprised to see that their bodies built immunity towards smallpox and supported his findings on the bizarre immunity of people towards either the smallpox or the cowpox but not to both. The rest of the chapter explains complex concepts

However, Jenner’s invention became a common practice only a few years after he released it to the public, and according to The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia, “By 1890 smallpox had virtually been eradicated from Britain.” (“Jenner, Edward (1749-1823)”) From the information about the first vaccination, we can see that vaccinations have been proven to eliminate deadly diseases, whether they receive opposition or not. Without immunizations, we would be overcome with diseases, such as smallpox, polio, and measles.

Mandatory vaccination continues to be a contentious subject in the United States, even though extensive evidence proves inoculation prevents certain diseases. According to A. Plotkin & L. Plotkin (2011), the evolution of the first vaccine commenced in the 1700’s when a physician named Edwards Jenner discovered that cowpox protected individuals from one of the deadliest diseases termed smallpox. The precise virus Jenner used is unclear; however, it was espoused in the extermination of smallpox worldwide. The researchers further explained, the unearthing of the subsequent vaccine known as chicken cholera occurred approximately 80 years later by Louise Pasteur. Ever since, copious vaccines such as rabies, yellow fever, varicella, pneumococcal, mumps and recently HPV have been introduced.

Jenner’s discovery of the link between cowpox and smallpox was significant to the development of a vaccine for smallpox. However, it can be argued that Jenner and his discovery were not enough on their own to bring medical progress. The factors Scientific thinking, Government Communication and Changing attitudes played a major and important role to bring medical progress.

Jenner’s vaccine was so successful that the World Health Organization declared the word “entirely eradicated” of human smallpox on December 9, 1979 (Spier, 2015). As a consequence of this monumental success and other successes like it, people forget how deadly diseases like this can be and fail to attribute their lack of a crippling disease to vaccinations. Other diseases that have been considered eliminated in a similar manner to smallpox are: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis A & B, yellow fever (Spier, 2015).

Throughout history, smallpox has been one of the dreaded scourges that inflicted mankind. World Health Organization (WHO) stated that smallpox is responsible for the 300 million death cases worldwide in the twentieth century. (Fenner, Henderson, Arita, Jezek , & Ladnyi, 1988) (Plotkin, 2004) It was only after Dr Edward Jenner’s development on the principle of vaccination that provided the only accurate technique for the prevention of smallpox. The introduction of vaccinia vaccine enabled the global eradication of naturally occurring smallpox in 1970, it is recorded that the last known smallpox case recorded was in Somalia after the eradication. (Rappuoli, Miller, & Falkow, 2002) Jenner’s procedure has been a highly effective immunizing agent, however, it seemed that it isn’t a successful fighter to disease because it carries high incidence of adverse side effects and severe complications. (Madigan, Martinko, Stahl , & Clark, 2012)This

Edward Jenner, the British doctor who developed the first vaccine, made vaccines acceptable around the world, made the eradication of smallpox possible, and assisted in the discovery of the disease agent known as the virus (Porter 272; Youngerman 17). One day in May 1796 met a dairymaid named Sarah Nelmes, who had a smallpox lesion on her hand (King 3). He used the matter from her lesion to inoculate an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps, leaving with a mild reaction for only nine days (King 3). Later, Jenner inoculated James again, but this time with smallpox matter: “No disease developed, and protection was complete” (King 3).The benefits of Jenner’s vaccine were immeasurable: a vaccinated person was incapable of spreading the disease, rashes were extremely rare, and death was considered to be in the “rarest of circumstances” (Greenspan 9). Getting the Jenner’s results published was no piece of cake. The prestigious Royal Society even informed him that he should not “promulgate such a wild idea if he valued his reputation” (Greenspan 9). However, later Jenner received many honors and worldwide recognition for his efforts, but he was so zealous in his works that his private life severely suffered (King 4-5). President Thomas Jefferson wrote the following letter to Jenner in

Vaccinations have been saving over 6 million lives since Edward Jenner created the smallpox vaccine in 1796 (Immunisation Advisory Centre). Today without vaccines we would be living in a very different world that would be struck with disease, but now this is becoming a reality for some religious and allergenic communities. On NPR an interview was conducted during “Science Friday, Talk of the Nation” with special guest, Dr. Offit, an author of the book "Deadly Choices: How the Anti-Vaccine Movement Threatens Us All." He stressed the importance of vaccines on the show (https://www.npr.org/2011/01/07/132740175/paul-offit-on-the-anti-vaccine-movement)

Measles. Polio. Smallpox. The flu. Imagine the world when vaccines were yet to be created. There was a time when people lived in fear of dreadful diseases. Thanks to the introduction of vaccines, many of those devastating diseases have been nearly or completely wiped out. Despite these results, for some people, the question remains: should we vaccinate? Today, I will be discussing the development of the first vaccine, global benefits, and the anti-vaccine movement.

Today most children in the United States live a much healthier life and parents live with much less anxiety due to vaccinations. More than 200 years ago, Edward Jenner conducted an experiment that would be one of the most astounding breakthroughs in medical history. Jenner noticed that milkmaids didn’t catch the smallpox, a disease rampant across the English countryside. He reasoned that the blisters on the milkmaid’s hand must contain something that was protective. He tested his theory by taking fluid from a blister on the wrist of a milkmaid and inoculating it into the arm of a local laborer’s son (Offit and

When children are born and for the first two years of their lives, they receive multiple shots and drops of vaccines. These vaccines protect them from getting diseases that were deadly and common in children many decades ago. Vaccine is one of the greatest achievement in medicine history. There were thousands of lives lost in the battle with some of the terrifying diseases like smallpox and polio. Now, after years of vaccine invention, vaccination spread in many countries which helped in eradicate several illnesses. In the United States, each family is required to show their children's immunization chart in order to get accepted in many educational institutes. Parents usually face the decision whether to vaccinate