Sarah Haack
Ms. Sturges
ENG 111-39
29 October 2015
Vaccines
Imagine if all parents decided to not get their children vaccinated. Infectious diseases that have been cured by vaccines would come back. Eventually we would all die from some type of disease like diphtheria, polio, the measles, small pox, whooping cough and may more. Today, many parents are deciding to delay their children’s vaccines and some not getting vaccinated at all because of severe reactions. Vaccinations not only protect us as individuals but also protect the entire community, vaccines should be mandatory so that these diseases are never seen again. Long ago, the first vaccine was derived from Edward Jenner in 1796, who was an English country physician. “He noticed that dairymaids exposed to
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Then fourty-eight days later Edward Jenner exposed the eight year old boy to smallpox and he did not contract the disease. In success to his discovery Jenner introduced the word “vaccine” which is a Latin word for cow. Louis Pasteur was a French chemist. He discovered that by isolating a virus it would weaken their effects and later on be used as what we know “vaccines”. Other scientists involved developed what is called “killed” vaccines against typhoid, plague, rabies, and cholera. In the mid 1920s there were vaccines to cure diphtheria, which is severe inflammation of the nose and throat often leading to the blockage of airways, causing death. There was a vaccine for pertussis which is also called whooping cough, it is an airborne disease and consists of lots of coughing and struggles to breathe afterwards. In the 1940s and 1950s the biggest problem was Polio. Polio can paralyze the arms and legs, even the respiratory muscles. Polio was not a deadly disease but many children would have metal braces on their legs or used iron lungs to aid them in breathing. Two