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History of Vaccines

Edward Jenner, a British country doctor, invented the first vaccine against smallpox in 1796. He extracted infected material of cowpox from a milkmaid’s hand and inoculated in an eight-year old boy. The boy did not fall sick and was unaffected in subsequent infections. The vaccine invention was amidst various challenges such as criticism, ethical concerns, lack of funds, and other scientific challenges (Riedel Web). Louis Pasteur, a French chemist, coined the term vaccine. He defined it as biological suspensions of either dead, alive, or attenuated fractions or whole microorganisms introduced into an individual to trigger an immune response and prevent infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria, and polio.

Edward Jenner was bestowed with honor and financial appreciation by many scientific and governmental organizations for his invention. Vaccination became a success in Britain and the United States where many children were vaccinated to prevent diseases. However, the financial challenge of erecting plants to produce the vaccines was a costly venture that saw only one company manufacturing the vaccines. In today’s world, vaccine production has shifted from being a government affair into a commercial one. However, most companies have given up on the business because of huge financial losses and unfavorable regulatory barriers. For example, Pfizer pharmaceutical company stopped the manufacture of the influenza vaccine, Fluogen, and sold the company to King Pharmaceuticals, who also gave up on the business due to high cost implications (Stern and Howard 616). Overcoming the financial barrier in vaccinology remains a great challenge because if vaccine manufacture could fail due to lack of funds, many children would succumb to infectious diseases. Nevertheless, various international organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund and the World Health Organization have shed light on the matter by being on the frontline in the campaigns for child immunization and vaccination since 1974.

Safety and sterilization in the manufacturing process have been other hurdles facing the production of vaccine since the Jenner era. Edward Jenner lacked appropriate sterilization and quality control techniques while he prepared the smallpox vaccine. He extracted the pustule from the chicken pox milkmaid and transferred it to the recipient’s arm in a non-sterile environment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web). There was a looming danger of transferring other pathogenic microorganism amidst the vaccine. Vaccines are sensitive components and utmost sterilization, monitoring and quality control should be observed. The vaccine should be monitored closely to ensure that it only induces immunity and not serious infections. For example, a contaminated poliovirus killed five children in 1955 because it contained the fatal wild-polio virus. Sterilization in vaccine production remains a great challenge even in today’s world, but it is not far off as compared to the Jenner era. Improved science and technology are to thank for the production of safe and reliable vaccines.

Ethical concerns, social, and religious beliefs have also posed a challenge to convince people to accept and acknowledge the benefits of vaccines. Some conservative groups have raised concerns about the introduction of microorganisms into an individual in the name of disease prevention. In the Jenner era, most Britons perceived vaccination as an intrusion of their bodily integrity and privacy with some viewing it as a potentially defiling and destructive procedure. However, some countries imposed compulsory vaccination of their citizenry for the common good that surpassed individual privacy and religious beliefs. Albeit vaccination still faces similar challenges in today’s world, its reception by most groups has been positive because they can attest to its effective prevention of diseases of the past, for example, smallpox.

In a research paper written 100 years from now, vaccination will be the norm in the world of medicine because it will have proven effective in disease prevention. Scientists have been working on coming up with as many vaccines as there are diseases, and the trend will continue until they are able to wipe out all infectious diseases in the world. Currently, there is no vaccine against common cold, HIV/AIDS and cancer; however, in 100 years, research papers will be boasting of the successful invention of vaccines against these diseases. The success will be due to improved science and technology, extensive research, economic stability, and favorable social and political factors.

Works Cited

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. History of Vaccine Safety, 8 Feb. 2011. Web. 21 April 2014.

Riedel, Stefan. Edward Jenner and the History of Smallpox and Vaccination. Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings 18.1 (2005): 21–25. Web. 21 April 2014.

Stern, Alexandra and Howard Markel. The History of Vaccines and Immunization: Familiar Patterns, New Challenges. Health Affairs 24. 3 (2005): 611-621. Print.