The Silva Effect

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.

Viruses, Plagues, and History, written by Michael Oldstone, is an insightful and highly educational book that details the history of, that’s right, viruses and plagues. Through typically dry, yet engaging prose, Oldstone recounts what seems like all of it while simultaneously bringing to light the contributions of those brave scientists who asked themselves, “why.” He focuses his attention on some of the most notable viruses such as smallpox, yellow fever, measles, polio, and later he focuses on more contemporary battles against disease.

The plague was a catastrophic time in history, and happened more than once. It took millions and millions of people’s lives. It destroyed cities and countries, and many people suffered from it.

Infectious epidemics and pandemics have happened all through mankind's history. “They remain the prime cause of death worldwide and will not be conquered during our lifetimes.” The flu of 1918 was one of the deadliest epidemics in history. “It infected an estimated 500 million people worldwide–about one-third of the planet’s population at the time–and killed an estimated 20 million to 50 million victims. More than 25 percent of the U.S. population became sick, and some 675,000 Americans died during the pandemic.” No one knew how the virus spread, there were no antibiotics to fight it, and no flu shots to prevent it. In the final year of World War I, it struck terror in the hearts of people all across Europe and left more death in its wake than the combined military actions of the combatants. “It killed more Americans in a few months than World War I, World War II, the Korean War, and the

Microbes go through old hosts after they’ve been eaten, or go through an insects’ saliva until they bite an old host. Microbes respond and are the cause to different things compared to germs. Microbes respond to things like what goes on in our immune system and our body temperature if it changes. Germs on the other hand tend to make us sick in a way, causing things to act differently like our stomach. This is very different from microbes. Epidemics and diseases killed off much of the European population and an enormous amount of people after WW1. The main disease that went around and caused this catastrophe was called The Black Death, otherwise known as the bubonic plague. The have 4 stages of characteristics. They start off by spreading quickly to a healthy person that is close by. Second, you’ll either recover completely or die within a short amount of time. Third, the ones that recover from the disease hold an antibody that’ll help humans become more immune to deadly diseases. Finally, they’re

Although populations in ancient societies suffered attacks, invasions, starvation, and persecution, there was a more efficient killer that exterminated countless people. The most dreaded killers in the ancient world were disease, infections and epidemics. In many major wars the main peril was not gunfire, nor assault, but the easily communicable diseases that rapidly wiped out whole divisions of closely quartered soldiers. Until the time of Hippocrates, in the struggle between life and death, it was, more often than not, death that prevailed when a malady was involved. In the modern world, although illness is still a concern, advances in thought and technique have led to the highest birth rates in recorded history. No longer is a fever a

When you think of horrid diseases a couple will come to mind. One of the ones that comes to my mind is Polio. Even though this disease is virtually eradicated, it was once rampant. Paralyzing and killing children, there was no treatment or cure for this horrendous disease. As stated by Indiana Jen, “It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Salk vaccine was developed enough to provide immunity to 99% of recipients.” Nowadays, most adults and children never have been touched by the disease and fail to recall that it was once a killer of children.

Diseases can cause a devastating effect on both the human body, and also the human population. Throughout several time periods of the present and past, diseases have caused a humongous impact in several society's in different countries around the world. Several large pandemics and epidemics have killed off the population of many species including humans and primates. Wether the time period is in the present or as far back as the Middle Ages, each and every one of these diseases, have had a life threatening outbreak, across several developing countries. Three known diseases have all created a huge conflict on different civilizations, causing different, unanswered questions to arise. A lot of research has gone into each individual disease, to

In society over the decades, diseases have found countless ways to reproduce and infect many. As seen in the movie, World War Z, a pandemic virus spread throughout the entire world and killed billions. Similarly, the black plague was a bacteria that killed two-thirds of the Eurasian population. The spread of these deadly diseases can lead to disorder and chaos regarding economic and social construct, leaving short and long term effects.

“In 2011 alone, 1.5 million children died [worldwide] from diseases preventable by currently recommended vaccines” (“Immunization” 2). The magnitude of this tragedy is in part caused by the fact that some of those children simply weren’t reached by organizations like UNICEF, which aim to vaccinate children (“Immunization” 2). However, there are other reasons for the recent deaths and epidemics—such as the whooping cough epidemic of 2012, with 48,000 cases nationally in the United States—involving vaccine preventable diseases (McClay 1).

The global use of vaccines has been very successful in reducing the incidence of infectious diseases and their associated complications. For centuries, infectious diseases were the most common cause of disability and death in the world. Until the 19th century, it was not known what caused these diseases and why some people became seriously ill with an infection while others were less affected.

Entire familys were left to rot in homes with no one to care, or feed them. The village forbid them to leave their house because they were infected. Those who were infected were quarantined and those who were fortunate to be living fled. The remaining people were scarred and scared. No-one cared about his or her wealth anymore, no matter how rich or poor you were.

Until the development of the smallpox vaccine in 1796, inoculation using the live smallpox virus was the only way to protect people from the deadly disease. Those inoculated had a chance of contracting the full virus and potentially dying from the disease. When Edward Jenner discovered that he could use a similar disease found in cattle, he began the modern era of vaccination (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 2015). Over the next 200 years, smallpox was essentially driven extinct by vaccination programs. Due to vaccines, a disease that killed an estimated 300 million people in the 20th century alone now only exists in a Center for Disease Control laboratory. (Flight, 2011).

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.

Our current society is surrounded by the debatable usage of vaccines and its importance around the world. Since the introduction of immunizations, many diseases have been decreased and even eradicated from humanity. Even though this is true, serious side effects along with lifelong illnesses follow the temporary cure of viruses. A vaccine is a substance that delivers immunity against viruses and is used to stimulate the construction of antibodies. Vaccines are prepared from the disease itself treated to perform as an antigen without inducing the disease (Vaccines). These inoculations are used worldwide and various unknown infections have been speculated as the originations for them. Vaccines were originated as an alternative to cure viruses among people but the harmful symptoms, unknown links to incurable