In recent years a very exasperating anti-vaccination trend has emerged. As a consequence, in countries which have been implementing systematic vaccination programmes for the entire population for decades, measles and other infections are now occurring every day. This is something that should not happen, but which is happening thanks to the attitude of misinformed and manipulated people.
In this blog we are not interested in why this anti-vaccine trend has emerged, nor in the reason why some parents do not vaccinate their children. For us, health is something that should not be played with, so we shall deal with this issue by recalling what has been common knowledge for years: that vaccination is beneficial for the vaccinated person and for the rest of the population where that person lives.
The first time an international vaccination programme was carried out was during the expedition led by Dr. Balmis, between 1803 and 1806. In this first sanitary expedition in the history of humanity, children living in territories that were part of the Spanish empire at that time (the American continent and the Philippines) were vaccinated against smallpox. At that time, mortality caused by smallpox was very high, especially in the infant population. The daughter of the king of Spain, Carlos IV, died of smallpox. And it seems that the king himself understood the importance of the vaccine against this disease, since he supported the Balmis Expedition.
The smallpox vaccine was designed by Dr. Jenner a few years before the Balmis Expedition. This English rural doctor observed that some women who milked cows acquired a disease similar to smallpox but milder (cowpox). He thought that from the pustular material of people infected with cowpox, immunization could be achieved in people who had not had smallpox. He collected pustular material from the cowpox lesions of an infected woman and used it to inoculate, on a small cut made in the arm of a child who had not had smallpox. The boy developed a mild infection and then recovered. Then Dr. Jenner found that the child was protected against smallpox because, after being injected with serum from a person infected with smallpox, the child did not develop the disease.
The manner in which the vaccination was carried out in the Balmis Expedition was impressive, because at that time the only way to keep the vaccination material safely was by extracting it directly from the pox pustule of one person and immediately inoculating another person with it. So on the expedition ship there were some children who served to “conserve” the inoculation material, since it was extracted from a pox pustule of an infected child and used to inoculate another child who was not infected. After a few days, the child who had received the inoculation (and, therefore, the vaccine) became the one with the pustule from which the inoculum was extracted for the next vaccination of another child of the expedition, and so on, until they arrived on land and vaccinated as many children as possible in the different places they visited. In addition, the expedition’s medical staff taught the local inhabitants, so that they could continue vaccinating and teaching the way to conserve the inoculum and to administer the vaccine.
Since that expedition, vaccination against smallpox has prevented many deaths in many parts of the world. But as smallpox still existed in some areas of Africa and Asia in the 1960s, in 1966 the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Smallpox Eradication Programme, with successful results: the complete eradication of smallpox (officially declared in 1980), a serious infectious disease that had caused the death of many people before the existence of the vaccine. This was achieved thanks to the vaccination of people throughout the world.
At present, the administration of vaccines is much simpler and more convenient than was vaccination against smallpox. Most vaccines are given in childhood, some in a single dose and some in several doses. The vaccination guidelines that have been applied have proved to be effective in preventing the infectious diseases that are to be avoided. In addition, they are safe, with a very low percentage of serious adverse effects. However, the infectious diseases against which these vaccines are directed can be very serious in some cases, and sometimes fatal.
The rejection of vaccination by some people makes no sense and is leading to the reappearance of infectious diseases that had almost been eradicated. The scientific literature clearly explains the nonsense of not vaccinating. For example, “Falsas creencias sobre las vacunas”, by several experts in Public Health1, and “Let’s talk about protection”, by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (summary in the form of questions and answers on pages 50 to 58)2.
Hence, we should like to emphasize the safety of vaccines and the benefits they bring to vaccinated people and populations. We consider that the attitude of people in anti-vaccination groups is antisocial, since it promotes the reappearance of infectious diseases that can cause avoidable suffering, physical sequelae and deaths.
Dr. Ana M. Cerro. PhD and Immunologist.
Bibliografía
1. Domínguez A, Astray J, Castilla J, Godoy P, Tuells J, Barrabeig I. Falsas creencias sobre las vacunas. Atención Primaria. 2019 Jan 1;51(1):40–6.
2. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. Let’s talk about protection enhancing childhood vaccination uptake: communication guide for healthcare providers. Luxembourg: Publications Office; 2016.