In 1756, a man named Edward Jenner, changed the medication techniques forever. Smallpox vaccine, the first successful vaccine to be developed, was introduced by Edward Jenner in 1796. He followed up his observation that milkmaids who had previously caught cowpox did not later catch smallpox by showing that inoculated cowpox protected against inoculated smallpox. The brilliance of his thinking has saved many lives and still continues to, every day. The world wouldn’t have been so favourable to live in without the vaccines of polio, small pox, diphtheria, whooping cough, and all those diseases which used to launch themselves as deadly epidemics.
So, how do these vaccines work? Northeastern University did a small article on it. The flu vaccine works by stimulating a person’s immune system to produce antibodies to the influenza viruses expected to be circulated during a given flu season. It takes about two weeks for the antibodies to develop and provide protection from the virus. One of the most dreaded diseases is influenza. Flu season can start as early as October and last through late May, which is why many people crowd at the hospitals to get vaccinated. There are many different strains of the influenza virus. Decisions to be made on which strains to include in a given year’s vaccine are based on information about viruses currently circulating worldwide and on predictions of which viruses are most likely to be circulating in the upcoming flu season. It takes several months to produce the vaccine and make it available for use, so decisions about which viruses to include are made very early on. It is surely a tough task to prepare the correct vaccine.
However, getting yourself vaccinated is not so hard. You just need to take out an hour out of your busy schedule. After all, prevention is always better than cure.
Shraddha Patil.