Vaccines Are For All Of Us

Americans are largely attentive to the use of vaccines in children but many do not recognize that the need for immunization continues through adulthood.  The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases estimates that illnesses that could be prevented by vaccines account for 50,000 adult deaths a year, more than breast cancer, HIV/AIDS and traffic fatalities combined.

Millennia ago, the Greeks knew that people who survived an outbreak of diseases we now term “infections” frequently became protected from further incidents and there is evidence that Middle Eastern and Asian cultures employed a form of “vaccination” long ago.  But as the Victorian anthropologist, Sir Francis Galton avowed: “In science credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs.”

Looking Back

Preparations that can provide immunity for different diseases may not have been new but they were first introduced into western medicine in the late 1700’s when the major terror was Smallpox.

In a well-documented study, British physician Edward Jenner, observing the disease’s similarity with cow-pox, scraped samples from sores on the hands of milkmaids and transferred these to an open wound on a young boy he had purposely exposed to Smallpox.

To the surprise of many but not Jenner, the lad did not develop the disease and the era of vaccination had begun.  Today Professor Jenner would surely be in jail for doing this experiment.

Smallpox vaccine quickly became widely used and not unlike today, there was resistance from some claiming its mandatory use was a violation of civil liberties, showing once again that nothing is really new.  Perseverance however prevailed and in 1979, Smallpox became the first contagion to be fully eliminated world-wide.  Skeptics aside, no further cases have been identified.

Vaccines Emerge

As scientific understanding grew, new vaccines joined the list:  Rabies, courtesy of Louis Pasteur in 1880’s and by the end of WWI, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough were not the inevitable killers of the generations previous.

Some other illnesses proved more difficult. Professor John Snow had cleverly (but illegally) established the source of cholera but a century and a half later a long-term defense still eludes us, as sadly we have seen in Haiti these past few years.

Some attempts (Plague and Yellow Fever) have been less than optimal.

Vaccine scientists have challenged Tuberculosis, Scarlet Fever and Malaria but with marginal results to date.  Thankfully, we do have antibiotics and other remedies to treat patients while efforts continue.

Simultaneously we are now confronting diseases that were once limited to faraway places: Rift Valley Disease, Dengue and Chikungunya Fevers, three illnesses all transmitted by the same genus of mosquito that is also the vector for Yellow Fever.

Clever little bugs aren’t they?   And there are no vaccines.

Clever does not describe what certain bacteria and viruses accomplish:  they mutate, creating changes in their genetic material, sometimes spontaneously.  These modifications may at times appear random yet other times appear outwardly pointed to counter efforts at treating the diseases they cause.

Going Forward

The time-frames for these viruses to alter varies greatly.  Polio immunization was introduced in 1955 and no mutation was identified until 2014 and it was not widespread.  Other viral-caused diseases are known to mutate quickly and often.

There are currently five recognized classes of Hepatitis (A through E) and there are similar groups and sub-types in the viruses that cause HIV.

On the good side, Measles, Chicken-Pox, Mumps and Rubella are no longer seen as “normal childhood diseases,” a term that is certainly incongruous.

To the credit of Doctors Salk and Sabin, the dreaded scourge of Polio was defeated in most of the world and by the end of this decade should go the way of Smallpox: eradicated.

Recent progress had led to vaccines for Hepatitis A and B, Influenza, Meningitis, Rotavirus,  Pneumococcal Pneumonia and Human Papillomavirus.  Now Shingles has yielded to a new preparation.

Logic dictates the elimination of a threat and thus the basis for vaccine research remains the eradication forever of diseases which maim and kill so many.

This goal is achievable and vaccines are among the principal weapons of choice.

Somewhere Jenner and Pasteur are smiling.

by Thomas Ignatius Hayes

Published in ACT TWO Magazine

October 2015
http://acttwomagazine.com