The young boy lied on his bed for a few days going through the pain of the flu. His fever was high, he had chills every once and a while. He had constant migraines, and his stomach hurt. He even vomited a couple of times. Just when he started to feel better the dread over took him. It started with his face then it covered the rest of his body, a rash. No one in his family could go near his for long periods of time since he was now very contagious. Two days later the rashes filled with pus, and they would burst leaving scabs that left pit marks all over his body. These are all the symptoms of the smallpox, which was eradicated in the United States in 1972 due to vaccinations (“Frequently Asked Questions About Smallpox”). …show more content…
The first vaccine was created in 1796 by innovations of Edward Jenner, who used materials of the cowpox to create immunity from the smallpox (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia 2015). This continued with Louis Pasteur’s rabies vaccine in 1885, and continued with more vaccines to immunize against diphtheria, tetanus, anthrax, cholera, plague, typhoid, tuberculosis, and more in the 1930’s (The College of Physicians of Philadelphia 2015). Vaccines develop immunity by imitating and infection; it does not cause illness, but symptoms can occur due to the immune system producing T-lymphocytes and antibodies (both are types of white blood cells that fight off infections), which is what causes symptoms to appear (Gershon 2007). After the imitated infection goes away the body remembers how to fight off that disease in the future (Gershon 2007). There are five types of vaccines that use different ways to fight of diseases. Some types of vaccines use a weaken version of a virus, or kill the virus while making the vaccine; weakened toxins, or toxoids are used to prevent disease caused by bacteria, some types use parts of the virus or bacteria of a disease, or use other types of bacteria to fight an illness …show more content…
The media recently may have scared the public by associating autism to vaccine because of thimerosal (a mercury containing preservative), which has been removed or reduced in all childhood vaccines except for the influenza vaccine, but the CDC states that evidence from several studies show that the relationship between autism and thimerosal or other ingredients in vaccines are not related (“Concerns About Autism”). Excuses that the media makes to victimize vaccines are unnecessary and can cause epidemics to spread of a disease that is still around. If someone can take a vaccine safely there is no reason not to take the vaccine. Go