Before vaccines were invented, whenever an individual contracted a disease, it would easily spread to the people who were in contact with the individual. Many became carriers of the disease, resulting in an outbreak. No one was immune from the disease, thus making the vast majority a suitable host for the pathogen. In 1796, British physician Edward Jenner created the first vaccination for smallpox by applying matters of fresh cowpox lesions on an infected eight years old’s hand (Riedel 2005). The fundamental principle behind vaccine is by injecting an antigen (usually a killed or weakened bacteria cell) into a host body; the antigen will imitate an infection and attack the host body. However, since the antigen is weakened or dead before being administered, it will not make the body sick. The antigen triggers the immune system to produce T-lymphocytes1, B-lymphocytes2 and antibodies to attack the affected cells, as though the body was infected with a disease. In the future, when the vaccinated individual encounters the disease, his or her immune system will recognize the pathogen and immediately produce the needed antibodies to fight it, preventing the individual from infected (“Understanding How Vaccines Work” 2013).
Immunization is one of the most effective ways to prevent the widespread of infectious disease. When the vast majority of the population is vaccinated, it results in herd immunity, a form of indirect protection against infectious disease. Vaccination decreases
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
First, in 1796, a doctor named Edward Jenner performed the very first vaccination. “Taking pus from a cowpox lesion on a milkmaid’s hand, Jenner inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps. Six weeks later Jenner variolated two sites on Phipps ' arm with smallpox, yet the boy was unaffected by this as well as subsequent exposures” (Minna & Markel, 2005)& (Cave, 2008). The first vaccination allowed people to recognize that it was beneficial for their health. It provided the base for the rest of the variations of vaccinations to come. Vaccinations began with the notion that it is rooted in the science of immunology. Throughout history, there have been many variations of this first vaccine for things such as small pox, mumps, malaria and guinea worm. (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, n.d.)
Vaccinations are a preventative measure, in that, they prevent the disease and the economic burden of treating the disease. Vaccinations have proven to be the most cost effective way to care for society. Maintaining herd immunity lowers expenses to the government, health
For thousands of years, diseases have taken the lives of millions of people, wiping out towns and spreading across countries. Disease like the measles, mumps, whooping cough, chicken pox and hepatitis are just a few of the diseases that can be prevented through the use of vaccinations. Though vaccines do not make the bacteria that caused the disease to go away, it helps control the outbreaks within societies, keeping children from getting sick and preventing death. Without the prevention from vaccines, the bacteria from those diseases will start to flourish resulting in the outbreaks within communities. Herd immunity is when the majority of a community is immunized against a contagious disease; most members of the community are protected against that disease because there is little opportunity for an outbreak.
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
It is very important to have vaccinations for diseases because it will help protect the body from germs, diseases, and even the swine flu. It can also boost your immune system. And it can even help boost your mood.
The means of dealing with infectious diseases that endanger individual and public health have evolved over the years. In 1789, however, the most protective technology used to prevent epidemics was introduced by physician Edward Jenner; vaccination. Vaccine efficiency continues to develop and become more advanced, producing immunity to infectious diseases from 90 to 100 percent of the time today. Because of inoculation, millions of people worldwide are immunized from fatal epidemics. However, because of unsubstantiated fears, many parents have been withholding vaccines from their children. Despite this, parents should not have the right to withhold vaccines from their children for philosophical reasons. Vaccines are the best way to prevent disease, vaccine exemptions endanger individual and public health, and without widespread inoculation, controlled diseases will rebound.
Ragan & Duffy (2012, p.23) have also shown high immunization rates have resulted in a substantial decline in vaccine preventable diseases, particularly vaccination has eliminated smallpox worldwide. In addition, in a study by Bawah, Phillips, Adjuik & smith et al (2010, p.95) found that vaccination has resulted in a large and statistically significant reduction child mortality. The risk of dying for children younger than five who are fully immunized is reduced by more than 70% compared with those who are not immunized or partially immunized. Moreover, research by Dawson (2011, p.1032) also suggests that vaccination is a vital intervention in reducing illness and death rates in children and he estimated approximately 2.5 million deaths could be prevented each year by vaccination. In addition to personal immunity Vaccination programs also bring herd immunity which ensures even greater protection for the community from communicable diseases. The level of vaccination required to provide herd immunity varies with virulence and transmissibility as well as vaccine efficacy. While vaccinating
In today’s society we use many vaccines that help prevent many different diseases. Some of these are live, attenuated vaccines, inactivated vaccines, subunit vaccines, toxoid vaccines, conjugate vaccines, DNA vaccines, recombinant vector vaccines. There are also multiple benefits of children getting there vaccinations early. There are also some downsides to vaccinations which will looked at directly as well. The importance of these vaccines are a great help and ultimately outweigh the shortcomings to this.
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).
Vaccines are one of most successful and cost effective public health preventive tool in current century for preventing communicable diseases. According to UK Health Protection Agency (HPA), vaccination is the second most effective public health intervention worldwide. Immunization protects the individual as well the community from serious diseases. Since the implementation of immunization there has been a 95% reduction in the cases 4. According to WHO immunization prevented 2million deaths worldwide.
In these days of modern medicine, most children are vaccinated early in life for diseases such as rubella, measles, and tetanus. Vaccines have been perfected to shield and protect our body from seriously life threatening diseases that could have the potential to wipe out large populations. Most of America and a lot of western countries see vaccines as beneficial and a common necessity for their children and themselves. However, this view has not always been accepted. In fact, vaccines were only first widely considered to be helpful for diseases when a man named Louis Pasteur began experimenting with rabies. We will start our journey of microbiological history with the discovery of anthrax and move forward through the creation of Pasteur’s rabies vaccine.
In contrast, a positive aspect of many people having vaccinations is herd immunity. Herd immunity is the occurrence where a large proportion of a specific population is vaccinated to provide them immunity, and as a result, it also gives some protection to the people of the population who have and yet developed immunity. This happens as the a large group of vaccinated individuals are protected from a virus and creates difficulty for the it to spread because there is only a small percentage of the population left that could be infected by the disease. It is a very crucial aspect of immunity for the community as the people who cannot receive vaccinations (i.e. people with weak immune systems, very young children and patients who are too ill)
A vaccine works by tricking the body’s immune system into creating antibodies that fight an innocuous form of the virus. The antibodies then remain in the body, and if the person encounters the real virus, they are protected against it. The history of vaccines actually goes as far back as 200BC India or China, when it was discovered that some diseases do not infect those who have already been infected by it. This discovery led people to infect themselves with inoculated matter, thus protecting them from the disease. The first vaccine dates back to 1796 when Edward Jenner developed the smallpox vaccine using a weakend version of the cowpox disease. The concept of vaccinations through inoculation is considered by many to be one of the great science revelations of the 20th century.
Vaccinations demonstrate the benefits of preventing suffering and death from infectious diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Vaccinations were approved as a number one on the list of the Ten Great Public Health Achievements for the United States from 1900 to 1999. If a critical number of people within a community are vaccinated against a particular illness, the entire group becomes less likely to get the disease. This protection is called community, or herd, immunity. On the other hand, if too many people in a community do not get vaccinations, diseases can reappear. Herd immunity has played major role in reducing continual endemic transmission of a number of disease, as a result, benefiting the