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In History, How “Effective” were Vaccines to the Humans?

Updated: Oct 23, 2023

Written by Justin S. (KIS'20)

Edited by Ava S. (TBS'19)

━━ February 26, 2018 ━━


Since the inception of vaccines in 1796, vaccines have been controversial. In addition, due to globally scaled movements of vaccinating children and adults against various diseases in recent years, the majority of the citizens in the world became concerned whether or not the vaccines were safe or effective for the people. As a result, some of the uneducated spread misconceptions regarding vaccines and many people believed in them. Some devastating misunderstandings are “hygiene and better nutrition are responsible for the reduction in disease rates, not vaccination” or “natural immunity is better than vaccine-acquired immunity.” These types of misconceptions ultimately increase the rate of acquiring diseases as more people believe that vaccines are not effective and choose not to get the prevention. To combat the issue of not vaccinating, one must study the effectiveness of vaccines in history and better understand its contribution to protection against preventable diseases.


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The Effectiveness of Vaccines

Today, because of the efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980, variola, or smallpox, was eliminated worldwide. It is the only disease considered to be eradicated for humans. This was possible because of the effectiveness of the vaccines. But before the invention of vaccines by Edward Jenner in 1796, variolation was used as a method to individually immunize people against smallpox. However, this method was unpredictably dangerous and is not used today. Vaccines, a safer alternative, was perfected over the years to combat diseases like smallpox and is favored over variolation. According to History of Vaccines, the disease used to kill up to 35% of the victims in the world’s population, but due to effective strategies from WHO, this disease was annihilated. This was possible because WHO used “Ring Vaccination” as a strategy to eradicate smallpox. This term simply means finding anyone who has interacted (knowingly or unknowingly) with smallpox patients and vaccinating them to limit the spread of the disease. One reason why this strategy worked was that of the obvious symptoms of smallpox. Patients with the disease had easily recognized rashes, symptomatic of smallpox. The virus can only be transmitted through human vectors. So, if more and more people were inoculated, creating an immunity against smallpox, then the spread of the virus would decrease. Using the “Ring Vaccination” strategy, WHO had vaccinators vaccinate large collections of people, thus ending the reign of smallpox over men. The last known case of smallpox was in Somalia in 1977 according to History of Vaccines.


Another disease that is eliminated from most places in the world is poliomyelitis, or more commonly known as “polio”. For hundreds of generations, polio has terrorized men. It is believed that the history of polio stretches back to 1580 BCE in ancient Egypt, which indicates that polio has daunted men for eons. Since the creation of a polio vaccine by Jonas Salk in 1955, which was then reinvented by Albert Sabin in 1961, an effective countermeasure against the threatening virus was made. Finally, the mass immunization of polio was possible as Jonas Salk created the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) and Albert Sabin synthesized the oral polio vaccine (OPV). Although there are two different types of vaccines for polio, many prefer the OPV due to its convenience. Global organizations including the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Rotary International formed a partnership together in 1988 called the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) as an attempt to eradicate the poliovirus by the year 2000. According to the GPEI, this partnership has 20,000,000 (20 million) volunteers, 200 countries involved, 14,000,000,000 (14 billion) US Dollars of investment, and vaccinated over 2,500,000,000 (2.5 billion) children in the world, which is over one-third of the world’s population. They also focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nigeria most of all because of their ongoing polio epidemics. They are the only countries in the world that still face polio endemics today due to their temporary inability to vaccinate their citizens. These countries have ongoing conflicts and political instabilities, which make them hard to reach and vaccinate their citizens, causing the vaccines to be ineffective against polio. However, hope should not be lost as we strive towards a polio-free world. According to the CDC, in 2011, 195 CDC workers “have completed 1,159 field deployments worldwide”, which show that the CDC and other global organizations in the Global Polio Eradication consider polio as an international threat and put the eradication of polio as an “important priority”. According to the GPEI, since the endeavors of global polio eradication starting in 1988, more than 99% of poliovirus cases were decreased. Many regions of the world became polio-free as the United States was considered a polio-free country by 1994, the Western Pacific region by 2000, European region by 2002, and the South East Asian region by 2014. The world is getting closer to eradicating another disease, polio, through the use of effective vaccines and strategies. This can be foreseen since according to Healthmap, a global leader in carefully monitoring the spread of diseases, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has pledged in 2013 to eradicate polio by 2018 in the Polio Eradication and Endgame Strategic Plan. History shows us that eradication of multiple diseases is possible through coordinated global efforts with vaccines. Without the vaccines, mass immunization against polio would not be possible.

Prior to the creation of vaccines in 1796, there was no chance for people to effectively immunize another against a disease. In a world without vaccines, natural selection was the only determining factor on who lived or died. Only those that had natural immunity against diseases like polio or smallpox could survive and be healthy if contracted. However, because of the vaccines, the majority of the people could fight against various types of diseases that plagued men for ages. Even those who did not vaccinate could enjoy not contracting diseases because the vaccines lowered the frequency of disease contraction and created a herd immunity, which could protect the minority of the population who cannot or did not get vaccinated. In recent years, organizations were formed and global movements were made as a goal to eradicate certain or all diseases from Earth affecting humans. These movements, which include using effective strategies and workable vaccines, put many diseases on the brink of extinction. Smallpox and rinderpest are eradicated because of the spread of vaccines against these diseases. In conclusion, the drastically reduced cases of poliomyelitis and the eradication of smallpox in the last 50 years show us that vaccines are indeed successful to humans.


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Bibliography:

-“Disease Eradication.” History of Vaccines, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 25 Jan. 2018, www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/disease-eradication. Accessed 10 Feb 2018.

- Edmundson, Lauren. “Polio To Be Eradicated By 2018?” Polio To Be Eradicated By 2018? | HealthMap, Healthmap, 12 Apr. 2013, www.healthmap.org/site/diseasedaily/article/polio-be-eradicated-2018-41213. Accessed 10 Feb 2018.

“- Global Health.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 Apr. 2016, www.cdc.gov/polio/updates. Accessed 10 Feb 2018.

- “History of Polio.” GPEI, GPEI, www.polioeradication.org/polio-today/history-of-polio. Accessed 10 Feb 2018.

- “Misconceptions about Vaccines.” History of Vaccines, The College of Physicians of Philadelphia, 25 Jan. 2018, www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/misconceptions-about-vaccines. Accessed 10 Feb 2018.


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