The Origin of Vaccines
March 5, 2022
Though the first vaccination on record was used in 1796, there are a number of earlier examples of vaccine use. In the 16th century, China and India had several recorded attempts at inoculation, detailing what appears to be early examples of protection against smallpox infections. It is believed that, when plagued with the smallpox epidemic, the Chinese Empire took to “scratching matter from a smallpox sore into a healthy person’s arm” and attempted to do what many modern day vaccines do through insertion of a needle (A History of Vaccines).
In 1545, India experienced a catastrophic smallpox epidemic similar to what China had experienced just a few decades earlier. Inscribed upon various walls and stones throughout India are a number of early Hindu goddesses, wielding what appear to be long, thin sticks, as they surround the sickly. Though never confirmed to be evidence of early vaccinations, they resemble the needles used in modern medicine, and could be an example of early medical innovation.
Over the course of the next two hundred years, illness would continue to plague the world. In 1578, yet another epidemic struck; this time, however, the disease ravaged the streets of Paris, France. In 1612, typhoid fever struck English royalty. From 1625 to around 1648, disease began to tear through North America, with illnesses ranging from yellow fever to smallpox to dysentery. Sickness has historically posed issues for nations across the world, and continued to worsen until the creation of the first vaccine.
In the year 1796, Edward Jenner “inoculated a 13 year-old-boy with vaccinia virus (cowpox)” and the boy soon “demonstrated immunity to smallpox” (The Immunisation Advisory Centre). Considered the “founder of vaccinology”, Jenner paved the way for future vaccination attempts, implementing the very first recorded example of the early science of inoculations. Because of his outstanding medical advancement, mass smallpox immunization began to come into play throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, eventually eradicating the disease on a worldwide scale.
There were hundreds of other contributors to the development of vaccinations throughout history. Perhaps one of the most notable was Louis Pasteur, a French chemist and biologist who specialized in the early medical field. Pasteur is most widely known for his invention of both anthrax and rabies vaccines, but also was a firm believer in germ theory, a proposition that was rejected by the majority of medical establishments during his time. The Academie de Medecine was reluctant to accept such a theory, yet despite the opposition he was faced with, Pasteur persevered onwards and later developed what would become the model for modern-day vaccines, creating a foundation by which the science of inoculations was able to thrive and evolve upon.
British immunologist Alexander Glenny, another contributing voice in the field of vaccinations, inactivated a tetanus toxin through incorporating formaldehyde into the solution in the year 1923. He not only created an example of a vaccine but developed a revolutionary method for producing vaccinations for other illnesses. The same process Glenny has used in order to inactivate the tetanus toxin was later used to combat diphtheria in 1926, and saved hundreds of thousands of people from the fatal illness that plagued so many parts of the world. It was also later used during the development period of the Pertussis vaccine, an illness most commonly known as whooping cough today.
New technologies also quickly began to arise regarding methods of immunization. “Viral tissue culture methods” were thoroughly refined from 1950 to 1985, and “led to the advent of the Salk (inactivated) polio vaccine and the Sabin (live attenuated oral) polio vaccine” (The Immunisation Advisory Centre). These critical advancements in vaccine technology ultimately led to the development of a globally-available polio shot, an important step forward for all scientific advancements. Once the vaccine had been delivered across the globe, polio rates dramatically decreased, and the disease that had left so many people incapacitated was now under control and virtually eradicated in many countries.
Viral tissue culture methods were absolutely imperative in the creation of later vaccines, such as measles, mumps, and rubella- three more precarious diseases that, once vaccinated against, faded away. However, a new method gradually began to develop as further advancements were made in one particular scientific field: the study of genetics. While a somewhat new practice, molecular genetics have erupted over the past two decades, with tremendous discoveries and studies being made each and every day. Molecular genetics have provided such an expansive view upon the science behind creating vaccines, and have offered a new method that creates stronger, more effective inoculations. The study of molecular genetics is involved in a number of common vaccines, including “recombinant hepatitis B vaccines, the less reactogenic acellular pertussis vaccine, and new techniques for seasonal influenza vaccine manufacture” (The Immunisation Advisory Centre). Even flu shots are often developed using molecular genetics!
Vaccinology has a bright future ahead of it thanks to the help of molecular genetics. Not only does the practice offer entirely new methods at vaccinating, but it is often capable of preventing illnesses that thirty years ago could have never been protected against with a mere inoculation. “Cytomegalovirus (CMV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), staphylococcal disease, streptococcal disease, pandemic influenza, shigella, HIV and schistosomiasis” are all examples of illnesses that, with the proper vaccination, can be eliminated from our planet, keeping us safe from harm.