History of Vaccination

ABSTRACT

Vaccination Administration of microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism to help the immune system develop protection from disease;vaccination is by far the ultimate achievement of humankind. Vaccination is derived from the Latin word Vacca, meaning cow, due to early studies of viruses and immunization on cows. Immunity due to vaccination is mainly responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and eliminating diseases such as polio and tetanus from much of the world. When smallpox was finally eradicated in 1979, it had already killed an estimated 300 - 500 million people in the 20th century. COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the significance of vaccination were all known human scientific establishment has been mobilized to develop a vaccine for it. This presentation discusses several necessary vaccines for viruses and diseases, including hepatitis, pneumococcal, meningococcal, rotavirus, human papilloma virus in children and pregnant mothers. Challenges in achieving herd immunity and many of the programs and initiatives to conduct mass immunization are discussed.