The History Of Vaccines

A vaccine is defined as “a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease” (“The Definition of Vaccine”). In simpler terms, a vaccine is an injection of a dead or weakened bacteria or virus that helps the human body produce an immunity to the said bacteria or virus. Vaccines, though proved to be generally very successful in eradicating diseases, are a cause of significant controversy. As more and more is being discovered about the ingredients used to make vaccinations and what those ingredients can do when injected into the bloodstream,
Edward Jenner is credited with formulating the first vaccine, which was to protect against smallpox. In 1796, Jenner, a scientist who practiced medicine, took cowpox lesions and injected them into an eight year old boy. Following the injection, the boy was sick; he had a fever, the chills, loss of appetite and pain around the injection site, however when Jenner injected the boy two months later with matter from a smallpox lesion, the smallpox disease did not develop and Jenner determined that the young boy was immune to the disease (Riedel). Jenner may be credited with the first vaccine, however his idea to inject matter from a lesion of a disease in order to achieve protection from that disease, was not revolutionary. In fact, vaccinations date back to as early as the year 1000, although they were not up to modern standards of sanitation or injected into the bloodstream as they are now. Instead, in past centuries, scabs from diseases such as smallpox were pulverized into a powder that was then blown into the nose, and from the olfactory, then entered the bloodstream. Other techniques that were used included scratching the matter from the lesions into the skin or cutting through the skin and smearing the matter onto the cut (The History of Vaccines). Although the concept of vaccinations has not changed over the centuries, scientists have gathered research and
There are a plethora of vaccinations that are recommended for children starting when they are born and extending until they are eighteen years of age. If infants receive all of the vaccinations they are recommended they will be injected with no less than six vaccinations before they are six months old ("Infants, Children, & Teens"). This is a concern for many parents because infants’ immune systems are not fully developed until anywhere from as early as three years to as late as seven years ("Vaccinations, Natural Immunity and Patient Rights"). The last part of the immune system to develop is the thymus gland which teaches the white blood cells to differentiate between “good” cells and “bad” cells which contain a harmful bacteria. When an infant is born, antibodies are passed to them from their mother’s placenta, the organ inside the uterus that nourishes the infant through the umbilical cord ("Development of the Immune System in Children"). Infants that are breastfed are at an advantage to infants that are formula-fed because when a child is breastfed, antibodies are passed from the mother through her milk into the child and then remain in the infant for six to twelve months. Due to the fact that the earliest that a child’s immune system is fully developed is at three years, it is important that that child receives the antibodies from the mother because they are not able to produce