Vaccination to Control Disease
- With the exception of the great success story surrounding the eradication of Smallpox following a ten year global initiative in 1980, no other pathogen has been eradicated globally since
- Smallpox was able to be eradicated because a ‘live attenuated’ vaccine was used against the only strain of the virus. There was also a programme of surveillance, contact tracing and ‘ring’ vaccinations
- There are many safe and effective vaccines that do exist against many pathogens and these have managed to push a number of childhood diseases to the verge of extinction
- Vaccines against such diseases as mumps, chicken pox and whooping cough are administered to children as part of an immunisation schedule and they successfully confer immunity
- As a result many childhood diseases are kept at low levels within populations due to herd immunity
- Herd immunity arises when a sufficiently large proportion of the population has been vaccinated (and are therefore immune)
- This makes it difficult for a pathogen to spread within that population, as those not immunised are protected and unlikely to contract it as the levels of the disease are so low
Herd Immunity Diagram
The process of herd immunity to protect populations from communicable disease through vaccination
- Although most vaccinations are given to children there are some vaccines that are provided at later stages in life
- Vaccinations for tuberculosis (TB) and Hepatitis B are offered to frontline medical workers who have a higher risk of coming into contact with such diseases in the hospital setting
- Travellers may be advised to take particular vaccines if travelling to areas where certain diseases are endemic such as Yellow Fever in parts of Africa
