The theory, invention and implementation of vaccination is widely considered to be one of the greatest medical achievements of modern medicine. As the most effective method of preventing infectious and life-threatening diseases, vaccines have had a significant impact on civilization and the world. This essay will define vaccination and describe life before the invention of vaccines. It will discuss the key players attributed to inventing and implementing immunization. It will then describe the importance and effects of vaccines, it will conclude by discussing the ongoing influences, advancements and debates around vaccination today. The Oxford Dictionary defines vaccination as “treatment with a vaccine to produce immunity against a disease”.
…show more content…
Sometimes wiping out whole towns and vastly reducing the population. Those who survived the diseases were left with long-term injuries and side-effects. For example, the few sufferers who survived Polio (a potentially fatal virus that attacks the nerve cells, predominantly in the spinal cord and brain), were left with permanent disabilities such as paralysation. Mortality and morbidity rates were extremely high, for instance before widespread availability and use of vaccination in the US, almost all of the population contracted measles and 15,000 people died from Diphtheria annually. Similarly, before the implementation of the rubella vaccination, an epidemic in America in 1964-1965 infected 12 ½ million people, killed 2,000 babies and caused 11,000 miscarriages. These staggeringly high mortality rates combined with a low life-expectancy, high rates of infection and life-long damage prompted the study of ways to prevent people contracting these …show more content…
Not only have vaccinations increased the life expectancy of the population, they have reduced the number of disease related long-term damage and disabilities. Vaccines and those who contributed to the advancements in immunization should be celebrated for the most important theory in modern
Sometimes wiping out whole towns and vastly reducing the population. Those who survived the diseases were left with long-term injuries and side-effects. For example, the few sufferers who survived Polio (a potentially fatal virus that attacks the nerve cells, predominantly in the spinal cord and brain), were left with permanent disabilities such as paralysation. Mortality and morbidity rates were extremely high, for instance before widespread availability and use of vaccination in the US, almost all of the population contracted measles and 15,000 people died from Diphtheria annually. Similarly, before the implementation of the rubella vaccination, an epidemic in America in 1964-1965 infected 12 ½ million people, killed 2,000 babies and caused 11,000 miscarriages. These staggeringly high mortality rates combined with a low life-expectancy, high rates of infection and life-long damage prompted the study of ways to prevent people contracting these …show more content…
Not only have vaccinations increased the life expectancy of the population, they have reduced the number of disease related long-term damage and disabilities. Vaccines and those who contributed to the advancements in immunization should be celebrated for the most important theory in modern