August is National Immunization Awareness month. I would like to take some time to discuss vaccinations, how they are developed, and the diseases they treat. 

To understand immunizations, we need to go back, way back. In 1000 CE, the first form of inoculation was practiced by the early Chinese through a process called variolation, in which the fluid from a smallpox lesion was used to scratch into the skin of a non-infected person. While this process caused all the symptoms of the disease, and some did die, the death rate was much lower. 

In 1796, Edward Jenner noticed that milkmaids who developed cowpox, a viral illness similar but milder than smallpox, were not afflicted with smallpox. Armed with this information, he inoculated a child with the fluid from a cowpox pustule. Months later, he exposed the child multiple times to smallpox, but he did not contract the disease. Through medical and technological changes over the next 200 years, the smallpox vaccine was developed, leading to the eradication of the disease.

From that time, research began to develop preventative medicines for other life altering and threatening diseases. In 1885, Louis Pasteur began working on the development of a vaccination for rabies. He researched and administered vaccinations to dogs for four years. Then, in 1885 an eight-year-old boy was severely bitten by a rabid dog. Two days after the injury, when the child’s death seemed inevitable, Pasteur administered 14 daily doses of a rabbit spinal cord suspension containing progressively inactivated rabies virus. The vaccination was successful, the boy survived, and the rabies immunization became introduced to the world.

Through the 1930s, antitoxins and vaccines were developed to fight diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, anthrax, cholera, plague, typhoid, and tuberculosis. In the middle 20^th century, vaccine research and development flourished and continues today. We have eradicated smallpox, polio, and diphtheria, and greatly reduced the incidence of measles by 99.9%, mumps by 97.4%, rubella by 99.98%, pertussis by 96.6%, and Haemophilus influenzae, which can cause meningitis, pneumonia, blood stream infections, and other illnesses, by 99.8%. Since 1900, there has been a 74% decrease in mortality in developed countries.

History is clear, vaccinations are safe, effective, and save lives and the on-going research ensures that this remains true. Have a conversation with your healthcare provider about which immunizations you or your child needs.

For more information about vaccinations or to schedule a well visit, please call Pomerene Family Care at 330-674-3333 or schedule an appointment online!