And so, he set to work on a series of experiments, now considered the birth of immunology, vaccine therapy, and preventive health. Six weeks later, Jenner exposed the boy to smallpox, but he did not develop the infection then, or on 20 subsequent exposures. In the years that followed, Jenner collected evidence from a further 23 patients infected or inoculated with the cowpox virus, to support his theory that immunity to cowpox did indeed provide protection against smallpox.
The boy never developed rabies and the treatment was heralded a success. The global influence of Louis Pasteur led to the expansion of the term vaccine to include a long list of treatments containing live, weakened or killed viruses, typically given in the form of an injection, to produce immunity against an infectious disease.
Scientific advances in the first half of the 20th Century led to an explosion of vaccines that protected against whooping cough , diphtheria , tetanus , influenza and mumps Thanks to new manufacturing techniques, vaccine production could be scaled up by the late s, setting global vaccination and disease eradication efforts in motion.
Vaccines against polio , measles , rubella and other viruses were added to the list over the decades that followed, and worldwide vaccination rates shot up dramatically thanks to successful global health campaigns. The world was announced smallpox-free in , the first of many big vaccine success stories, but there was still a long way to go with other infectious diseases.
By the late s, the progress of international immunization programmes was stalling. The problem was that new vaccines were becoming available but developing countries simply could not afford them. In response, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and partners came together in to set up the Global Alliance for Vaccines and immunization, now called Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
The aim was to encourage manufacturers to lower vaccine prices for the poorest countries in return for long-term, high-volume and predictable demand from those countries. Since its launch, child deaths have halved, and 13 million deaths have been prevented.
The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action. As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics.
In , at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations CEPI was launched — bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines.
It is said that Edward Jenner saved more lives through his work than any other human in history. Edward Jenner was the first doctor to vaccinate people against smallpox; he was responsible for developing the world's first vaccine. Smallpox was a dangerous disease. The symptoms of smallpox were pus-filled spots yuk — and those that didn't die were left with nasty sores on their face, known as 'pock-marks'.
Smallpox could also make you blind. Jenner's discovery was a huge medical breakthrough. His work is said to have saved more lives than the work of any other human!
In , the World Health Organisation declared smallpox an eliminated disease. Edward Jenner wasn't just interested in medicine, he showed a great interest in nature, too. He loved being outside and looking at plants and animals and he was a keen fossil collector. He was particularly interested in the cuckoo — especially why cuckoos lay their eggs in other birds' nests!
Louis Pasteur, who worked on the causes and prevention of disease in s, later adopted the word vaccination to mean immunisation against any disease, not just smallpox. Sarah Nelmes caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom.
Edward Jenner was a very famous English scientist. He made a huge medical breakthrough that had an impact worldwide. He was a country doctor who was born, lived and died in the small village of Berkeley in Gloucestershire.
Jenner was born on 17 May and was the eighth of nine children! His father, Stephen, was the vicar of Berkeley. Sadly, at the young age of just five, Jenner lost both his parents and was then brought up by his older siblings. Edward wanted to be a doctor. At 15, he went to work for a country surgeon where he helped with operations and prepared medicines.
When he was 21, he went to London to become a pupil of the great surgeon John Hunter. Jenner became a doctor in Berkeley in and it was there that he put his great skills of observation to great use!
He noticed, as he visited his patients, that a person who had suffered from cowpox — a mild disease that humans could catch from cattle — did not get smallpox. Jenner believed that having cowpox protected sufferers against contracting smallpox.
In Jenner met a dairymaid called Sarah Nelmes with fresh cowpox sores on her finger. He injected eight-year-old James Phipps, the son of his gardener, with cowpox from Sarah Nelmes. Eight weeks later he injected the boy with smallpox and the boy did not develop the disease! Jenner completed other experiments with the cowpox vaccine and in he published his research in a book, An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae.
In some cases, the building of herd immunity in vaccinated populations has led to the total eradication of certain diseases that once killed millions. The concept of vaccination and immunization far preceded what is generally consider to be the "age of vaccines. Even as far back as the 11th century, historical records have shown that the Chinese practiced variolation, a technique by which tiny amounts of pus from people with smallpox were introduced into the bodies of those without it.
By doing so, people exposed to only small amounts of the virus were largely shielded from the ravages of the disease. However, some did get sick and even died. The practice of variolation soon made its way from China to the Ottoman Empire. By the late 18th century, it was taught to English travelers in Turkey who introduced the practice to the British Empire and, later, the Americas. But, the actual development of vaccines—substances that provide immune protection without minimal risk of disease—only started around the turn of the 18th century.
Among the seminal moments in early vaccine history:. The early 20th century was marked by rapid advances in vaccine research, due in large part to the technologies that allowed scientists to isolate and distinguish between different viruses or bacteria.
This enabled scientists to differentiate, for example, measles from smallpox—a discovery only made in by the Persian scientist Rhazes. During the latter half of the century, the scope of vaccine research was further expanded with the advent of genomic research and next-generation techniques such as gene-slicing and the profiling of DNA sequencing. Among the key vaccine achievements of the early- to midth century:.
With the eradication of smallpox in , scientists aimed to achieve the same with a host of other diseases. Aiding them in this quest were rapid advances in technology that allowed researchers to look closely at the mechanisms that induce an immune response—right down to a cell's genetic sequence.
Among the achievements of the latter part of the 20th century:. Thus far, the 21st century has been marked by contrast insofar as vaccines are concerned. On the one hand, vaccine development has snowballed with an ever-widening range of vaccine platforms to build on. On the other, a rejection of vaccination by many in the general public has lead to the comeback of diseases once declared eliminated.
Among some of the achievements of the early part of the 21st century:. Despite the increasing safety and efficacy of vaccines, growing anti-vaccine sentiment in the United States has led to a decline in vaccination rates and the re-emergence of diseases once considered eliminated. In , a measles outbreak in 22 states led to 1, confirmed cases—an alarming reversal from when the disease was officially declared eliminated in the United States.
Public health officials fear that the same could occur with other diseases once thought eradicated. Vaccines work. Despite conspiracy theories and claims to the contrary, the benefits of recommended vaccines invariably outweigh the risks. Consider that a disease like diphtheria killed over 15, children in the United States in but is rarely if ever seen today. The last two cases were reported in and As the COVID pandemic of readily reminds us, vaccines not only protect individuals from severe illness and death, but they protect the population at large by preventing the spread of infection.
Get our printable guide for your next doctor's appointment to help you ask the right questions. Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Boylston A. The origins of inoculation. J R Soc Med. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. History of smallpox. Updated February 20, Recombinant vaccines and the development of new vaccine strategies. Braz J Med Biol Res.
Pichichero ME. Protein carriers of conjugate vaccines: characteristics, development, and clinical trials.
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