Here we will understand what is routine immunization, its history and the benefits.
Immunization is one of the greatest
public health achievements of the 20th century. Not only does vaccination
reduce death and disability from an increasing number of diseases, studies have
shown that it also increases life expectancy and contributes to a more
productive workforce.
· Specific
disease control initiatives
· The
introduction of new vaccines
· Periodic
campaigns to improve vaccination coverage
They are also the primary way to
reach new generations of children as early in life as possible, preventing
disease and protecting individuals and communities from premature death and
suffering. Routine immunization services are often the first— and sometimes
only— interaction that poor families have with preventive health services. They
are a largely untapped opportunity for addressing other health needs.
History
Introducing a small amount of
smallpox virus by inhaling through the nose or by making a number of small
pricks through the skin (variolation) to create resistance to the disease
appears to have begun in the 10th or 11th century in Central Asia. The practice
spread; in Asia and Africa, the method was nasal, while in Europe it involved
skin punctures. Variolation was introduced into England in 1721. There, in
1798, Edward Jenner, having studied the success of variolation with cowpox — a
mild illness — in protecting against smallpox, began to carry out inoculations
against smallpox, the first systematic effort to control a disease through
immunization.
In 1885, Louis Pasteur developed the
first vaccine to protect humans against rabies. Toxoids against diphtheria and
tetanus were introduced in the early 1900s; the bacillus Calmette-Guérin
vaccine (against tuberculosis) in 1927; the Salk polio vaccine in 1955; and
vaccines against measles and mumps in the 1960s
The benefits of immunization
Vaccines — which protect against
disease by inducing immunity — are widely and routinely administered around the
world based on the common-sense principle that it is better to keep people from
falling ill than to treat them once they are ill. Suffering, disability, and
death are avoided. Immunization averted about two million deaths in 2002. In
addition, contagion is reduced, strain on health-care systems is eased, and
money is frequently saved that can be used for other health services.
Immunization is a proven tool for
controlling and even eradicating disease. An immunization campaign carried out
by the World Health Organization (WHO) from 1967 to 1977 eradicated the natural
occurrence of smallpox. When the programme began, the disease still threatened
60% of the world's population and killed every fourth victim. Eradication of
poliomyelitis is within reach. Since the launch by WHO and its partners of the
Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988, infections have fallen by 99%, and
some five million people have escaped paralysis. Between 1999 and 2003, measles
deaths dropped worldwide by almost 40%, and some regions have set a target of
eliminating the disease. Maternal and neonatal tetanus will soon be eliminated
in 14 of 57 high-risk countries.
New vaccines also have been
introduced with significant results, including the first vaccine to help
prevent liver cancer, hepatitis B vaccine, which is now routinely given to
infants in 77% of WHO's Member States. Rapid progress in the development of new
vaccines means protection will be available in the near future against a wider
range of serious infectious diseases.
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