The Value of Vaccinations
By Michael Leonard Douglas & D. S. Mitchell
History
Have you ever heard of the Black Death? Only in text books I’m sure. This was a time before vaccinations. In 1347 The Black Death arrived in Europe. Over the next five years the devastating epidemic would kill 20 million people in Europe alone. Prior to reaching Europe The Plague is believed to have taken the lives of over 200 million people worldwide. The first recorded “pan epidemic”. It was one of the most devastating periods in human history.
A Scratch Or A Cut
I have wondered what it would have been like to live in a world without vaccines. I’m sure I would have died at an early age as did most people before the modern era. The first efforts to inoculate a human being against disease was in China as early as 900 BCE. At that time smallpox was rampant in China. It was observed that if a person survived smallpox they would be immune to further outbreaks of the disease.
Chinese Physicians
To protect people from infection, ancient Chinese physicians would cut or scratch the skin of healthy people and then rub powdered smallpox scabs or fluid from pustules into the cut in the skin. Another method was to blow powdered smallpox material up the nose of a healthy person. This exposure to live bacteria and viruses was called inoculation or variolation. This was a precursor to modern vaccination. In 1700 the wife of England’s ambassador to Turkey, Lady Montagu, brought news of this Eastern practice to England.
Smallpox an Ancient Problem
Smallpox was a disfiguring and often fatal infectious disease that plagued humanity for at least 5,000 years. In 18th century Europe smallpox was widespread and was believed to kill 3 out of every 10 people who contracted it. Of the 30% that died most were young children, making smallpox a death sentence for the most vulnerable. Many survivors were left terribly disfigured from scars from the rupturing skin pustules.
Enter Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner was an English country physician. Dr. Jenner observed that dairy workers who had been infected with cowpox, were immune to later smallpox outbreaks. This observation led him to inoculate a boy with cowpox. Later, Jenner would infect the same boy with fresh smallpox and when no disease developed Jenner concluded that the boy was protected against smallpox. His work would lead to what would become **”attenuated vaccines”. In 1801 Jenner published his findings in his treatise, “On the Origin of the Vaccine Inoculation” Jenner summarized with the hope that “annihilation of smallpox, the most dreadful scourge of the human species, must be the result of this practice (vaccination).”
Smallpox Eradication Program
In 1959 The World Health Organization initiated a global plan to eradicate smallpox. The program’s poor funding, staff shortages, and commitment within the countries most effected, combined with a shortage of vaccine donations stalled this first historic effort. In 1966 smallpox was still widespread in many countries across Africa, Asia and South America. In 1967 WHO went on a new attack calling for an Intensified Eradication Program of Smallpox.
A New Effort At Eradication
The climate for total eradication had improved in just a decade. Numerous factors converged to improve the fight against this dreaded disease. The bifurcated needle, higher quality freeze-dry vaccines, a follow-up surveillance system for tracking new cases, and mass vaccination campaigns were added to the arsenal of weapons directed at eradicating smallpox. Smallpox had been eliminated in North America (1952), Europe (1953) leaving South America, Africa and Asia still experiencing outbreaks. The Intensified Eradication Program successfully eradicated smallpox from South America in 1971, followed by Asia in 1975 and finally Africa in 1977. The World Health Organization announced the world was at last free from smallpox on May 8, 1980. Both scientists and historians consider the eradication of smallpox one of the most significant achievements in world-wide public health.
A Global Mission
Prior to the 1970’s only about 5-percent of the world’s children were vaccinated. The intense vaccination programs begun at that time changed those statistics dramatically. By 2017 a staggering 85% percent of children on the planet had been successfully vaccinated for the most common vaccine preventable diseases. Immunization prevents illness, disability and death from such illnesses as : cervical cancer, hep B, measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping-cough), pneumonia, polio, rotavirus, rubella and diarrhea.
Reduce Mortality Rates
Most governments have successfully integrated mandatory vaccination programs into health care policy in the effort to successfully meet public health goals. Polio vaccination being the key driving force. Almost 96-percent of children living in the developing world receive polio vaccination at a young age. Pointing to another success, WHO statistics show 86% of infants globally have successfully received the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) immunization. DPT3 is a key vaccine in boosting children’s immune systems (WHO, 2018). A staggering 124 countries have embraced vaccination as its cheapest and most efficient means to cut infant mortality rates.
Benefits of Vaccination
Experts predict that immunization from vaccine-preventable diseases will continue to save lives and money. Vaccinating the remaining unprotected population will save 1.5 million lives. In addition to saving lives, according to researcher, Sachiko Ozawa, Ph.D, more than $320 billion in healthcare costs will be saved by 2020, thanks to vaccines (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2017).
Mandatory Immunization
The problem that WHO and other organizations face is the lack of formal education on the importance of vaccines. Some parents and communities resist ‘complete vaccination’ measures due to their religious beliefs or negative propaganda that has hampered 100% compliance in vaccination programs. In addition to the humanitarian benefits of vaccination there is “no more cost-effective strategy than vaccination,” claims Ozawa.
Anti-vaccination Concerns
Thanks to some growing anti-vaccination concerns that have developed most particularly in the United States and the UK where there is a vocal resistance to continuing mandatory vaccination programs. Highly publicized and poorly documented studies have attempted to draw a link between autism and vaccinations. The fact that we live in a globalized society can complicate public policy. We are only 12 hours from any point on earth. The transport of disease from one continent to another is just an airplane ride away. Additionally we have an internet loaded with misinformation, propaganda and conspiracy theories. Promotion of such misinformation against vaccinations could prove dangerous.
The Value of Risk
Not much in life is fool-proof, including medical procedures. Vaccination does come with risks, most being minor. If a child does not receive vaccines within the suggested time frame that child is at increased risk of contracting the diseases that immunization could have prevented, and possibly die. It is important to remember that the goal is not just the protection of one person from severe disease, but the goal rather is to protect the entire community. Despite the concerns linking vaccination to autism, there is an immediate risk of the child dying of vaccine-treatable diseases such as whooping-cough and in the process infecting the greater population. For many of those who do survive a vaccine-treatable disease the economic devastation from lost work time, depleted sick hours and other costs can set these families into a downward spiral that impacts the U.S. economy.
Refusal to Participate
There is a lot to consider when handling parental concerns. The society is at risk when parents refuse to vaccinate their children. Governments must address the social, cultural, philosophical and religious concerns with sensitivity. However, legislators are now finding it increasingly challenging to safeguard such choices ahead of public health. The anti-vaccination movement is without a doubt one of the greatest potential threats to worldwide vaccination programs.
Improved Statistics
Efforts to educate expectant mothers has improved statistics on the number of immunized infants. Also, technological advances have made administration of vaccines safer and easier. There is no proven relationship between vaccines and permanent health problems and parents failing to immunize their children fearing that they may develop further complications is foolish and dangerous.
Time Schedules
1 out of 5 U.S. children are not immunized within the recommended time period. Imagine what such numbers could imply if the trend continues when viewed on a global scale. It would mean that the efforts set out in 1974 would experience zero progress and probably a resurgence in vaccine treatable vaccines such as influenza and smallpox.
Autism Connection
It is essential that healthcare providers offer sufficient explanation of the importance of the vaccination. A growing number of concerned parents have heard about the “autism connection”. Parents must be given the right information to reassure them that their children are safer with vaccination than without it. It is vital to conduct informal education to expectant mothers about the vaccination process. Many parents who may have refused to vaccinate their children due to the “autism scare” are being countered with education.
The Web
Vaccination skeptics, when convinced by a qualified physician backed up by the information already out there, are more willing to acknowledge the benefits. With the right knowledge, it is easier to offer vaccination and a healthier future for their children.
Future of Vaccination
Fortunately, the future of vaccines is bright. Six years ago, the World Health Organization joined with Global Vaccine Action Plan to increase immunization accessibility; universal vaccination is anticipated by 2020. The success of the strategy has realized near eradication of rubella and measles in the Americas with South-East Asia revealing the lowest numbers of neonatal tetanus in history.
Bottom Line
The joint collaboration of governments and International Organizations to vaccinate children at an early stage has helped to dramatically cut childhood mortality rates. With over one hundred years of aggressive global immunization campaigns the world has seen historic reductions in vaccine preventable disease.
*Cowpox is a milder form of smallpox.
**”An attenuated vaccine is a vaccine created by reducing the virulence of a pathogen, but still keeping it viable (or “live”). Attenuation takes an infectious agent and alters it so that it becomes harmless or less virulent. These vaccines contrast to those produced by “killing” the virus (inactivated vaccine)”. Wikipedia
References:
https://www.en..wikipedia.org/wiki/attenuated_vaccine
https://www.historyofvaccinations.org/content/articles/do-vaccines-cause-autism
https://www.historyofvaccinations.org/content/articles/misconceptions-about-vaccines
https:// ScienceDaily.com
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170901101035.htm
https://www. worldhealthorganization,com (2018). The power of vaccines: still not fully utilized.
https://www.who.int/publications/10-year-review/vaccines/en/index2.html
