History of Vaccines

Variolation is also called engrafting was introduced in England in 1721, in which dried pus was introduced from smallpox pustules into the skin of the patient. The vaccination came into existance back hundreds of years. In 1796, Edward Jenner inoculated a 13-year old boy by vaccina virus (cowpox) and demonstrated the immunity against smallpox. The process of inoculation was first used by Chinese physicians in the 10th century. Smallpox was a contagious and deadly disease, causing the death of 20% - 60% of infected adults and over 80% of infected children. Smallpox was eradicated in 1979, after killing 300-500 million people in 20th century.  After this he gained the title of vaccination in 17th century. In 1897 and 1904 Louis Pasteur discovered attenuated live cholera and inactivated anthrax vaccine in humans respectively. In the late 19th century plague vaccine was also invented. In 1990s, Arntzen developed the concept of edible vaccines. Bacillis- Calmette- Gnerin (BCG) was  invented in between 1890 and 1950 which is still used. In 1923, a method was developed to inactivate tetanus toxin with formaldehyde by Alexander Glenny. The same method was used to develop diptheria vaccine in the year 1926. In modern times, vaccines had eradicated many diseases which have been very useful. The first disease to be targeted was smallpox. After that in 1988, the WHO targeted Polio by 2000. After all this some vaccines are still elusine for many dangerous diseases like herpes, malaria, gonorrhea and HIV. In the 20th century, protection against foreign pathogens with low degree of antigen variability increased because of the development of vaccines.