5Vaccinations date back to the 1500s, where smallpox inoculation was practiced in China and India6. The method that was used involved grinding the smallpox scabs and blowing them into the nostrils as well as scratching the matter from smallpox sore into the skin. Sadly, in 1585, the smallpox epidemic was responsible for the death of 8000 children in India. The first case of variolation or inoculation was documented in the year 1706; the method included injecting the disease material directly into the veins of subjects. At this point, the rich seem to be taking advantage of the advances in medicine where the poor died from the disease. The results of variolation were devastating, two out of the three people variolated died from smallpox.
In 1770, Edward Jenner discovered that previous exposure to a disease called cowpox could prevent a person from later becoming ill with smallpox. He noticed that milkmaids who caught cowpox from infected milking cows were not affected by smallpox. In 1796, Dr. Edward Jenner proved that a person who was initially infected with the cowpox disease material acquired immunity to the smallpox disease. Hence vaccination with the cowpox pustule prevented future smallpox infection. Benjamin Waterhouse performed the first vaccination of children in the US in the 1800s.
In 1803, Edward Jenner coined the term vaccination; from the Latin word “Vacca” which means cow. The US Congress and James Madison established the US Vaccine Agency in 1813 and its main objective was to ensure that the smallpox vaccine was delivered to the US citizens for free by the US Postal Office. Thus the death rate due to smallpox was reduced. Another milestone was laid in 1857 when Louis Pasteur highlighted the importance of heating in order to prevent the growth of microorganisms. This lead to the ideas of pasteurization for the preservation of food as well as the importance of following safety protocols during surgical procedures. His experiments further solidified the idea that living organisms are created from other living organisms and hence disapproved the idea of Spontaneous Generations, which insisted that life could arise from non-living materials such as mud. In 1939, the whooping cough vaccine was created. The first DTP (diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis) vaccines were available in the U.S. In 1965, hepatitis B antigen was isolated. By 1974, various childhood diseases disappeared from the developed world, though they took many lives in poorer countries. In 1977, the meningococcal vaccine was created and the first Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) disease was licensed in the United States.
To summarize, Vaccines are substances that consist of weakened, dead, or incomplete portions of pathogens or antigens. The major types of vaccines licensed for use in humans include:
- Live, attenuated organisms for example smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis, and chickenpox.
- Inactivated or killed pathogens, such as typhoid, whooping cough, hepatitis A, and rabies.
- Purified or recombinant subunit, for example, diphtheria, tetanus, and anthrax.
- Recombinant protein vaccines, for example, hepatitis B.
