Vaccines: Protecting the Community, One Person at a Time “According to Shot@Life, a United Nations Foundation partner organization, vaccines save 2.5 million children from preventable diseases every year, which equates to roughly 285 children saved every hour” (ProCon.org). That’s a lot of kids, and we aren’t just talking about chickenpox. We’re talking about every disease out there that can be prevented by vaccine, many of which are deadly. If we did not have vaccines available, 2.5 million children each year could potentially contract a life-threatening illness, and many would die. No one wants to see their child taken from them, or even hear of the death of a child down the street. However, we don’t have to worry about this because
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Edward Jenner from England decided to write his own chapter on the history of smallpox vaccination. It was known that English milkmaids would often develop cowpox from milking infected cows. Cowpox is a minor infection in cows that is very similar to smallpox, but not near as deadly. It was known that after milkmaids recovered from the cowpox, they were immune to smallpox. With this knowledge in mind, Dr. Jenner conducted an experiment on an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps. He injected cowpox pus into the boy’s arm, and then exposed him to human smallpox. When exposed, Phipps did not get sick. Dr. Jenner had created a new, more effective method of inoculation. He called it a vaccination, from the Latin word vacca, which means “cow.” Four years later, Jenner’s vaccination was brought to America, and soon became very popular. They were used extensively throughout the county by the end of the 1800s. Starting in 1855, states began passing laws that required all school-children to receive the vaccination. With more and more people receiving the immunization, the number of smallpox cases in the U.S. began to decrease drastically. There hasn’t been a case of illness in the America since 1949. The last known outbreak of the disease occurred in Somalia in 1977. Smallpox, the disease that scarred so many and killed even more, has been eradicated. To this day, no one in the world needs a vaccination for the illness because all traces of it have …show more content…
Polio is the first example. As stated earlier, polio is a virus that can cause extreme cases of paralysis and even death. “Before polio vaccine was available, 13,000 to 20,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported each year in the United States” ( Merino). These cases would leave thousands of victims with lifelong effects of paralysis. Another deadly disease is the measles. “Before measles immunization was available, nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles” (Merino). Measles can cause serious complications like diarrhea, ear infections, pneumonia, hospitalization, and death. Measles remains one of the most infectious diseases in the world, making it necessary to have children vaccinated for it. “Before Hib vaccine became available, Hib was the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in U.S. infants and children” (Merino). In the pre-vaccine era, there was about 20,000 cases of Hib each year, two-thirds of which were meningitis. Pertussis, or whooping cough, is another disease we have to protect ourselves from. “In the U.S., prior to pertussis immunization, between 150,000 and 260,000 cases of pertussis were reported each year, with up to 9,000 pertussis-related deaths” (Merino). Whooping cough is a very serious illness that causes long, violent coughing spells. The disease makes it very difficult for the infected person to do basic things like eating, drinking, and
Edward Jenner from England decided to write his own chapter on the history of smallpox vaccination. It was known that English milkmaids would often develop cowpox from milking infected cows. Cowpox is a minor infection in cows that is very similar to smallpox, but not near as deadly. It was known that after milkmaids recovered from the cowpox, they were immune to smallpox. With this knowledge in mind, Dr. Jenner conducted an experiment on an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps. He injected cowpox pus into the boy’s arm, and then exposed him to human smallpox. When exposed, Phipps did not get sick. Dr. Jenner had created a new, more effective method of inoculation. He called it a vaccination, from the Latin word vacca, which means “cow.” Four years later, Jenner’s vaccination was brought to America, and soon became very popular. They were used extensively throughout the county by the end of the 1800s. Starting in 1855, states began passing laws that required all school-children to receive the vaccination. With more and more people receiving the immunization, the number of smallpox cases in the U.S. began to decrease drastically. There hasn’t been a case of illness in the America since 1949. The last known outbreak of the disease occurred in Somalia in 1977. Smallpox, the disease that scarred so many and killed even more, has been eradicated. To this day, no one in the world needs a vaccination for the illness because all traces of it have …show more content…
Polio is the first example. As stated earlier, polio is a virus that can cause extreme cases of paralysis and even death. “Before polio vaccine was available, 13,000 to 20,000 cases of paralytic polio were reported each year in the United States” ( Merino). These cases would leave thousands of victims with lifelong effects of paralysis. Another deadly disease is the measles. “Before measles immunization was available, nearly everyone in the U.S. got measles” (Merino). Measles can cause serious complications like diarrhea, ear infections, pneumonia, hospitalization, and death. Measles remains one of the most infectious diseases in the world, making it necessary to have children vaccinated for it. “Before Hib vaccine became available, Hib was the most common cause of bacterial meningitis in U.S. infants and children” (Merino). In the pre-vaccine era, there was about 20,000 cases of Hib each year, two-thirds of which were meningitis. Pertussis, or whooping cough, is another disease we have to protect ourselves from. “In the U.S., prior to pertussis immunization, between 150,000 and 260,000 cases of pertussis were reported each year, with up to 9,000 pertussis-related deaths” (Merino). Whooping cough is a very serious illness that causes long, violent coughing spells. The disease makes it very difficult for the infected person to do basic things like eating, drinking, and