Immunization milestones

28 Immunization milestones Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) showed how mankind can be protected against rabies. A contemporary por- trait and a drawing of his laboratory. 1721 Variolation (deliberate inocu- lation with smallpox virus), practised for centuries in Africa, China, India, and the Middle East, is introduced to Europe by Lady Mary Wortley Monta- gu, wife of the English ambassador in Turkey. In America, the Reverend Cot- ton Mather learns of variolation from his African slaves and introduces it in Boston. 1796 Edward Jenner, an English medical student, observes that milk- mai2s who have recovered from cow- pox are protected against smallpox. He practises his first inoculation on an 8-year-old boy on 14 May 1796 and announces his findings two years later. The word vaccination (from the Latin word for cow: vacca) replaces the term variolation. 1801 Dr Jenner's pamphlet on vacci- nation has been translated into five languages. More than 100,000 persons have been vaccinated in England. Jenner predicts the eventual "annihil- ation of the smallpox." 1870 Combatants in the Franco-Prus- sian war meet_ a common enemy: a smallpox epidemic. The French sustain 23,400 fatalities; the Germans lose only 278. The reason? The German army has been vaccinated. 1880 German scientist Robert Koch discovers the tubercle bacillus and begins work on a tuberculosis vaccine. 1885 Louis Pasteur of France intro- duces the rabies vaccine. Previously, a bite from a rabies-infected animal usu- ally resulted in "hydrophobia", which was inevitably fatal. By 1890, rabies vaccination centres exist in major cities throughout the world. 1890 The united efforts of bac- teriologists Emil A. von Behring of Germany and Shibasaburo Kitsato of Japan result in the discovery of toxin/antitoxin immunization for diph- theria and tetanus. They receive the Nobel Prize for their work in 1902. Robert Koch (1843- 1910) won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine in 1905 with his work on TB and other dis- Edward Jenner (1749-1823) disco- vered vaccination and became "the father of immunology." A doll dis- tracts a child from the brief scratch of the needle. Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915), another Nobel prizewinner, was a pioneer in diphtheria vaccines . . 1897 Paul Ehrlich evaluates the effec- tiveness of diphtheria antiserum in Germany and receives the Nobel Prize for further work in immunology in 1908. 1906 Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin of France produce an attenu- ated tuberculosis vaccine (bacillus Cal- mette-Guerin), now called the BCG vaccine. Following the discovery of the pertussis bacillus by the Belgian scientist Jules Bordet, several types of pertussis vac- cines are developed. His work earns him the Nobel Prize in 1919. 1940 After perfecting and testing a safer pertussis vaccine, American Pearl Kendrick begins trials of a combined diphtheria toxoid and pertussis vac- cine. 1954 Work by John Enders, Thomas Weller, and Thomas Peebles of Har- vard University (USA) leads the way to the development of a safe measles vaccine. American virologist and physician Jonas Salk produces the inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine (IPV) which is injectable. 1957 Albert Sabin of the United States brings out the live poliomyelitis vaccine. Taken orally, it is designated as OPV. . 1958 During the Eleventh World Health Assembly, the Soviet Union points out that the funds devoted to smallpox vaccination probably exceed the cost of wiping out the disease. WHA votes to step up efforts to eradi- cate smallpox. WoRLD HEALTH, Jan ./Feb. 1987 Ali Maow Maalin, the world's last victim of smallpox. Top: Front cover of World Health in May 1980. Below: A healthy and protected baby: the goal of EPI by 1990. 1963 Mass immunization campaigns using newly developed, safer measles vaccines begin in the United States and Europe. The United States reported 482,000 cases of measles in 1962; by 1968, the incidence had dropped to 22,000 c;ases. 1967 The World Health Organization (wHo) begins the campaign to eliminate smallpox from the planet. 1974 WHO's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) is established. 1977 EPI sets its target: by 1990 to immunize all the world's children against the six childhood diseases :. measles, pertussis, diphtheria, tuber- culosis, poliomyelitis, and tetanus (in- cluding neonatal tetanus). 1977 Eradicated continent by conti- nent, smallpox makes its last stand in Somalia, East Africa. The last case, Ali Maow Maalin, makes a complete recovery. 1980 The .Thirty-third World Health Assembly officially declares smallpox completely eradicated from the planet. By now, safe and effective vaccines exist for about 20 infectious diseases. 1987 World Health Day (April 7) 1987 focuses on EPI, giving added impetus to immunization programmes worldwide in their attempts to reach the 1990 goal. 1990 Target date for EPI, when children worldwide will have access to immunizati.on services and will have the possibility of being fully protected against the six vaccine-P.re- ventable diseases. 29