Washington, History of Vaccines: ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ This adage fits perfectly on the pandemics and its vaccine. Whenever an epidemic has spread in the world, then a vaccine has been invented. Epidemics and vaccines have a long history. The corona pandemic has caused worldwide outrage. The only way to protect against the corona virus that has become a threat to the world is vaccine. In such a situation, the entire world is focused on the corona vaccine. In such a situation, curiosity arises as to what is the history of this vaccine. For which disease was the vaccine used for the first time by the world.
The world has become increasingly infected with infectious diseases
In the former world of Corona, many epidemics like plague, smallpox, cholera, typhoid, tetanus, rabies, TB, polio have been reported. The world has often suffered from infectious disease outbreaks. Millions of people have lost their lives due to these infectious diseases. Studies and research being done for centuries suggest that to get rid of these epidemics, researchers and scientists discovered vaccine and got rid of infectious diseases.
1- First vaccine in the world in 1796
The outbreak of smallpox continued for many decades in the world. Many people lost their lives due to this. Smallpox was the first disease in the world to be discovered. In 1796, the British physician Edward Jenner invented the smallpox vaccine. With this invention, crores of people have been cured of deadly disease like smallpox today. The smallpox vaccine was nothing short of a miracle for the world. For the first time in America, a law was enacted regarding the vaccine. Smallpox vaccine was made mandatory in the US for everyone. The law was also updated in 1898.
2- French scientist Louis Pasteur did wonders in 1885
In 1885 the whole world was reeling under the rabies epidemic. It is a contagious disease. Rabies is caused by dog bite. In such a situation, the famous French scientist Louis Pasteur successfully tested the rabies vaccine. This discovery brought a revolution in the medical world. Saved humanity from a great crisis. He developed vaccines for several diseases including diphtheria, tetanus, cholera, plague, typhoid, TB.
3- TB vaccine in 1921
In 1921, the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine of TB was developed. After this, TB was not an incurable disease. This vaccine prepares the body’s immune system or immunity against a particular infection. The BCG vaccine managed to reduce the death rate among the newborns in the West African country of Guinea-Bissau by 38 percent. Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by the bacterium of Tuberculosis called Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
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Also know
- 1923: Vaccine created to prevent diphtheria disease.
- 1926: Vaccine invented to prevent tetanus disease.
- 1936: Max Thaler and his associate first invented the vaccine to avoid Yellow Fever.
- 1944: The vaccine was discovered after several deaths due to Japanese encephalitic fever.
- 1945: Flu vaccine campaign launched for the first time.
- 1960: Albert Sabine’s poliovirus vaccine licensed in the US. This vaccine provided protection from type-1 poliovirus. Later, Type-2 and Type-3 of the Polia virus were also licensed. The year 1963 vaccine included all three variants.
- 1963: Licensed measles vaccine. The measles vaccine was first used in monkeys and then in humans. John Anders and his co-workers announce their measles vaccine. Measles vaccine was licensed in the US in 1963 and in the next 12 years, about 19 million doses were given in the country. In 1969, the rubella virus vaccine was also recognized.
- 1971: The US government licenses the combined vaccines (MMR) of measles, mumps, and rubella. This vaccine was very effective in the prevention of these three diseases.
- 1977: Pneumococcal vaccine approved. It was a multi-serotype vaccine, prepared after years of study by Robert Astrian (1916–2007), MD of Pennsylvania University. Along with this vaccine, work was started in the US for the swine flu vaccine.
- 1986: Licensed recombinant vaccine for hepatitis-B. This hepatitis B vaccine was the first human vaccine prepared with recombinant DNA methods.
- 2002: All of Europe declared polio free.
- 2009: Succeeded in vaccination against H1N1.
- August 2020: The entire African continent is declared free from polio.
- December 2020: Pfizer, Oxford and a few other companies succeed in developing the vaccine against the corona virus.