The Development of Polio Vaccines

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Background

Although therapy for many diseases has improved, from the public health point of view vaccines are the most powerful and appropriate tools for preventing epidemic diseases. Whenever a large portion of a population has been vaccinated, the community achieves a form of protection against epidemics known as "herd immunity" because the number of susceptible people is significantly reduced. Advances in biotechnology have made possible the design of safer and more effective vaccines. Edward Jenner (1749-1823) introduced the term vaccination in the late eighteenth century to distinguish his method of inducing immunity to smallpox from older, more dangerous methods. Vaccines are made in a variety of ways, depending in part on the nature of the organism and the disease it causes. Weakened microbes, killed microbes, animal viruses that are not virulent in humans, and toxins are the most common components of the vaccines that have been in use throughout the twentieth century. Weakened live-virus vaccines have been used against rabies, mumps, measles and rubella, and poliomyelitis. Similar techniques are being used to create new vaccines against rotaviruses, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza, and influenza viruses. Killed-virus vaccines are being used against poliomyelitis, whooping cough, and influenza.

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