Vaccinations. We’ve all had them. We’ve all had those terrifying moments queuing up for the school nurse waiting to be stabbed with a needle the bigger kids tell you is the size of a permanent marker. And there was always one kid who screamed the place down, which is something nobody wants to hear when they’re up next. But despite the momentary ouch, they really are amazing things.
Vaccines give people immunity to a particular disease, by causing the production of antibodies – clever proteins that identify these bad bacteria and vile viruses. If we then come into contact with the same nasty bacteria/virus, our immune systems can recognise them and produce the specific antibodies needed to fight them immediately. This is called active immunity and stops our bodies being affected by the same pathogen again. We now have a huge number of vaccines available to us which protect against diseases ranging from rabies to chickenpox.
So what is in a vaccine? Vaccines are made up of suspensions of killed or weakened microorganisms. These pathogenic microorganisms can be grown in vast numbers and a less dangerous strain selected. Alternatively the part of the pathogen which causes the immune response can be extracted and used in the vaccine. Another method is to inactivate any toxins the pathogen produces to make it harmless, whilst still having the properties to cause the production of antibodies in the body. By exposing ourselves to the weakened pathogen, our bodies will have the antibodies ready for a fast response to fight against it without actually contracting the disease.
On the subject of MMR, this little vaccine as caused huge controversy. There has been mass attention to this vaccine in recent years due to the suggestion that the MMR jab causes autism in children. However, mass epidemiological studies, followed by more recent smaller studies looking at individual children have found no link between MMR and autism. Despite this evidence, the controversy still lies with some parents arguing they noticed changes in their children following the jab.
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This subsequent publicity over this controversy from the scare-mongering media has caused the rate of MMR vaccinations to decline in recent years, with only 60% of children receiving the MMR jab in some areas of the UK. This decline has already caused a rise in the number of measles infections, with fears of an epidemic outbreak. Measles is highly infectious and if vaccination rates fall, measles will quickly spread again. On the other hand, if 95% of children were protected by the MMR jab, it is possible for all three diseases to be eliminated completely. Funnily enough, the Daily Mail doesn’t tell you that bit.
A great example of the success of vaccines is the elimination of smallpox. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 15million people contracted smallpox in 1967 and two million died as a consequence. However, after intense vaccination campaigns, by 1979 smallpox became the first infectious disease to be completely eradicated. Furthermore it was only last year that rinderpest, a disease affecting cattle, became the second viral disease to be eradicated by humans. Now there’s a mankind-win.
So for the sake of a 5 second ouch, that’s got to be worth it.
References
http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Vaccines.aspx References
Neat.
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