saad omer vaccine and vaccine preventable disease

The next phase of scientific developments involving the manipulation of infectious agents to extract suitable vaccine antigens took almost a century of research. The vaccine against smallpox was developed in 1798. He determined that inoculating small amounts of pus from the lesions of cowpox, presumably containing a virus related to vaccinia, into susceptible hosts rendered them immune to smallpox. In 1796 in the United Kingdom, Edward Jenner observed the immunity to smallpox of milkmaids having previously had natural infection with cowpox ( Jenner, 1798). Human use of preparations to prevent specific infections have been described since 1500 AD, beginning in China ( Needham, 2000) where smallpox was prevented by variolation, which is the introduction of material from scabs into the skin. This review will highlight the benefits of vaccinations to society from the perspectives of health, economy, and social fabric ( Figure 1), which need to be considered in the overall assessment of impact to ensure that vaccines are prioritized by those making funding decisions. These importance of these organizations in global co-operation and participation was essential in the setting of the 2019 global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, in light of the health and economic impact of COVID-19 on societies in high-, middle- and low-income countries. Agencies including the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiative (CEPI), with their multiple funding streams have been instrumental in expanding vaccine benefits to all.

That said, there is still much to be done to ensure the financing, provision, distribution, and administration of vaccines to all populations, in particular those which are difficult to reach, including those skeptical about their protective value and those living in civil disruption. By 2055, the earth’s population is estimated to reach almost 10 billion ( United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2019), a feat that in part is due to effective vaccines that prevent disease and prolong life expectancy across all continents.

It is estimated that vaccines have prevented 6 million deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases annually ( Ehreth, 2003). Vaccination, along with sanitation and clean drinking water, are public health interventions that are undeniably responsible for improved health outcomes globally. The development of safe and efficacious vaccination against diseases that cause substantial morbidity and mortality has been one of the foremost scientific advances of the 21st century. With the exception of safe water, no other modality has had such a major effect on mortality reduction and population growth” ( Plotkin and Mortimer, 1988). “The impact of vaccination on the health of the world’s peoples is hard to exaggerate. As we appreciate and quantify the health, economic and social benefits of vaccines and immunization programs to individuals and society, we should endeavor to communicate this to the public and policy makers, for the benefit of endemic, epidemic, and pandemic diseases. After learning of the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in December 2019, and its potential for global dissemination to cause COVID-19 disease was realized, there was an urgent need to develop vaccines at an unprecedented rate and scale. Here we discuss the health, economic and social benefits of vaccines that have been identified and studied in recent years, impacting all regions and all age groups. As clinicians and biomedical scientists we often focus on the health benefits that vaccines provide, in the prevention of ill-health and death from infectious pathogens. This is a problem that many individuals and agencies are working hard to address globally. However, at the time of writing, access to vaccines that prevent life-threatening infectious diseases remains unequal to all infants, children and adults in the world.

In the 20th century, the development, licensing and implementation of vaccines as part of large, systematic immunization programs started to address health inequities that existed globally. 3Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States.2Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases, St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.1Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.

Saad omer vaccine and vaccine preventable disease