Tish Davidson - Vaccines

The Story of a Drug

Painkillers: History, Science, and Issues
Victor B. Stolberg

Antipsychotics: History, Science, and Issues
Jeffrey Kerner and Bridget McCoy

Steroids: History, Science, and Issues
Joan E. Standora, Alex Bogomolnik, and Malgorzata Slugocki

Vaccines

HISTORY, SCIENCE, AND ISSUES

Tish Davidson

The Story of a Drug

Copyright 2017 by ABC-CLIO, LLC

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Davidson, Tish, author.

Title: Vaccines : history, science, and issues / Tish Davidson.

Description: Santa Barbara : Greenwood, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, [2017] | Series: The story of a drug | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017006238 (print) | LCCN 2017009240 (ebook) | ISBN 9781440844430 (hardcopy : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781440844447 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Vaccines. | VaccinesHistory.

Classification: LCC RM281 .D38 2017 (print) | LCC RM281 (ebook) | DDC 615.3/72dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017006238

ISBN: 978-1-4408-4443-0

EISBN: 978-1-4408-4444-7

21 20 19 18 171 2 3 4 5

This book is also available as an eBook.

Greenwood

An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC

ABC-CLIO, LLC

130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911

Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911

www.abc-clio.com

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Manufactured in the United States of America

This book discusses treatments (including types of medication and mental health therapies), diagnostic tests for various symptoms and mental health disorders, and organizations. The authors have made every effort to present accurate and up-to-date information. However, the information in this book is not intended to recommend or endorse particular treatments or organizations, or substitute for the care or medical advice of a qualified health professional, or used to alter any medical therapy without a medical doctors advice. Specific situations may require specific therapeutic approaches not included in this book. For those reasons, we recommend that readers follow the advice of qualified health care professionals directly involved in their care. Readers who suspect they may have specific medical problems should consult a physician about any suggestions made in this book.

For Scott who has listened patiently for many years.

While many books have been written about the prevalence and perils of recreational drug use, what about the wide variety of chemicals Americans ingest to help them heal or to cope with mental and physical issues? These therapeutic drugswhether prescription or over-the-counter (OTC), generic or brand nameplay a critical role in both the U.S. healthcare system and American society at large. This series explores major classes of such drugs, examining them from a variety of perspectives, including scientific, medical, economic, legal, and cultural.

For the sake of clarity and consistency, each book in this series follows the same format.

We begin with a fictional case study bringing to life the significance of this particular class of drug..

Each volume in this series also includes a glossary of terms and a collection of print and electronic resources for additional information and further study.

It is our hope that the books in this series will not only provide valuable information, but will also spur discussion and debate about these drugs and the many issues that surround them. For instance, are antibiotics being overprescribed, leading to the development of drug-resistant bacteria? Should antipsychotics, usually used to treat serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, be used to render inmates and elderly individuals with dementia more docile? Do schools have the right to mandate vaccination for their students, against the wishes of some parents?

As a final caveat, we wish to emphasize that the information we present in these books is no substitute for consultation with a licensed healthcare professional, and we do not claim to provide medical advice or guidance.

Peter L. Myers, PhD
Emeritus member, National Addiction Studies Accreditation Commission Past President, International Coalition for Addiction Studies Education Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that vaccines have had a greater effect on reducing death, disability, and illness than any public health advance except for safe water. The WHO compiles a list of medicines that it considers essential to human health. As of 2017, there are 32 vaccine-preventable diseases. These diseases are so devastating that vaccines against 23 of them are on the WHO essential medicine list.

Vaccines have changed the world. Smallpox once killed one of every three people who were infected. In 1980, thanks to comprehensive vaccination, it was declared eradicated. Gone. No more bodies buried in mass graves because there were not enough healthy people to bury them properly. No more scarred, disfigured survivors.

Polio, which once killed and paralyzed thousands every year, is close to eradication. As of early 2017, the disease was found only in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. The international fight to eradicate polio has been slowed by difficulties in reaching people in the affected areas, cultural misunderstandings, and political opposition, but polio eradication remains an achievable goal.

It is hard to underestimate the effect vaccines have had on the lives of ordinary people. Once common diseases in the United States are now rare and unfamiliar. In the 1920s before an effective diphtheria vaccine became available, at least 200,000 people in the United States contracted the disease each year. Between 10,000 and 20,000 of them died. The death rate in children under five was 20 percent. Now sometimes years go by without a single case in the United States.

In the early 1960s before there was a good measles vaccine, 500,000 cases of measles and 500 measles-caused deaths occurred in the United States annually. The rate of measles infection dropped by 93 percent in the years after introduction of the vaccine.

Why are vaccines so effective in preventing illness? When people get an infectious disease, the body makes antibodies to fight the disease. This process takes about two weeks. During that time, people gets sick, sometimes so sick that they die. However, if they recover, they then have antibodies left in their body ready to immediately fight the disease should they encounter it again. This means that they will not get sick from the exact same disease a second time.

The miracle of vaccines is that they stimulate the body to make antibodies against a specific disease before the individual becomes infected, and they do this without making the person sick. So when a vaccinated person encounters a disease he or she has been vaccinated against, the antibodies are already in place and ready to go to work to fight the disease. The result is that the vaccinated individual is immune to the disease and does not get sick.