A specialist in preventative medicine, such as Dominique Fradin-Read, could tell you, vaccines are key to stopping the spread of infectious diseases. Many virulent diseases that caused widespread death and untold suffering in the past have been all but eradicated thanks to vaccination.
A vaccine typically works by introducing an inactive pathogen into the body's system. While it does not make the patient sick, it does stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies to fight against it. Future exposure to a live pathogen produces the same immune response, and the patient either experiences milder symptoms than an infection would usually cause or doesn't get sick at all.
Vaccines have changed history for the better, preventing needless suffering and death for millions of people throughout centuries. Here are some of the most important vaccine discoveries.
1. Smallpox
Smallpox is a virus that can cause a rash that forms large, fluid-filled blisters. Approximately 30% of people who contracted smallpox died from it, and those who survived often suffered severe complications, such as blindness and disfigurement due to scarring. Thanks to vaccination efforts, it now only exists in controlled laboratory settings.
Eighteenth-century English physician Edward Jenner observed that people who worked with cattle tended not to catch smallpox and inferred that a similar but less severe infection called cowpox provided immunity. He then started inoculating people with cowpox material as protection against smallpox. He was not the first to inoculate people against smallpox, but he did help coin the name "vaccine," from the Latin word for "cow," to refer to the inoculation.
2. Rabies
Rabies is transmitted through the saliva of infected animals when they bite. One of the symptoms is increased aggression. Rabies is almost always fatal. Louis Pasteur, a French physician who was one of the first to advance germ theory as the cause of infectious disease, developed a rabies vaccine in 1885. His was the first vaccine to be created in a laboratory. Because the incubation period for rabies can be several weeks, people who had been exposed could travel thousands of miles from other countries to receive the vaccine and avoid getting sick.
3. Polio
Polio affects the central nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis and motor disability. At its height, children were most susceptible to polio. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in 1953, and among the first patients to receive it were his three sons.
Since vaccination has become so commonplace, many people take it for granted. Some do not even think it is necessary. Nevertheless, diseases with effective vaccines, such as measles, have been known to resurge when inoculations against it drop off.
