It is our goal and commitment to provide all natural health supplements to help increase the quality and longevity of your life.
Home » Cold-and-flu » Immunizations » Immunization against viral diseases
With the exception of smallpox, it was not until well into the 20th century that efficient viral vaccines became available. In fact, it was not until the 1930s that much began to be known about viruses. The two developments that contributed most to the rapid growth in knowledge after that time were the introduction of tissue culture as a means of growing viruses in the laboratory and the availability of the electron microscope. Once the virus could be cultivated with comparative ease in the laboratory, the research worker could study it with care and evolve methods for producing one of the two requirements for a safe and effective vaccine: either a virus that was so attenuated, or weakened, that it could not produce the disease for which it was responsible in its normally virulent form; or a killed virus that retained the faculty of inducing a protective antibody response in the vaccinated individual.
These vaccines went far toward bringing under control three of the major diseases of the time although, in the case of influenza, a major complication is the disturbing proclivity of the virus to change its character from one epidemic to another. Even so, sufficient progress has been made to ensure that a pandemic like the one that swept the world in 1918–19, killing more than 15,000,000 people, is unlikely to occur again. Centres are now equipped to monitor outbreaks of influenza throughout the world in order to establish the identity of the responsible viruses and, if necessary, take steps to produce appropriate vaccines.
During the 1960s effective vaccines came into use for measles and rubella (German measles). Both evoked a certain amount of controversy. In the case of measles in the Western world it was contended that, if acquired in childhood, it is not a particularly hazardous malady, and the naturally acquired disease evokes permanent immunity in the vast majority of cases. Conversely, the vaccine induces a certain number of adverse reactions, and the duration of the immunity it produces is problematical. In the end the official view was that universal measles vaccination is to be commended.
The situation with rubella vaccination was different. This is a fundamentally mild affliction, and the only cause for anxiety is its proclivity to induce congenital deformities if a pregnant woman should acquire the disease. Once an effective vaccine was available, the problem was the extent to which it should be used. Ultimately the consensus was reached that all girls who had not already had the disease should be vaccinated at about 12 years. In the United States children are routinely immunized against measles, mumps, and rubella at the age of 15 months
Article ID: 300
Word Count: 515
Total views: 373
Rating: Not yet rated
