DEVELOPING VACCINES TO COMBAT HUMAN DISEASES: A HISTORY

ABSTRACT

This article traces the development of vaccines from the early attempts to combat a fatal disease caused by variola (smallpox) virus in antiquity, through to the highly technical advances which have led to the efficacious vaccines targeting COVID-19. As vaccine preparation has advanced, so has the understanding of the immune response to immunisation and the realisation that the use of adjuvants is essential to boosting the immune response. Furthermore, coupling polysaccharides to proteins is important in achieving vaccine efficacy in young children and older adults. Successful vaccination programmes have led to marked reductions in mortality associated with the diseases targeted by those vaccines – and to the unintended consequence of cultural amnesia regarding those diseases. The anti-vaccination movement has gained traction by riding on this cultural amnesia to capitalise on spurious associations, infrequent public-health disasters around inadvertent administration of faulty vaccine preparations and rare adverse events to build a case against vaccination. This tension between the advances in vaccine production and the criticism cast at the pro-vaccination agenda should be viewed as an agent for growth in the development of safe and effective vaccines, and in the planning to combat future pandemics.