Vaccines, whose importance we once again understand with the COVID-19 pandemic, have been protecting people from deadly diseases for hundreds of years. Vaccination is not a cure, it is a method of prevention. Because even the smallest disease can cause a lethal effect in some bodies. The vaccine, on the other hand, introduces a part of this disease to the body and teaches how to protect itself by reacting when faced with that disease one day.
Even though it is not like the vaccine we know today, even hundreds of years ago, people knew that the most effective way to prevent a disease was to meet the disease in a harmless amount. Of course, nowadays, vaccine systems have also developed and started to aim to completely eliminate possible side effects. Let’s take a closer look at the history of vaccination, one of the most important inventions in human history.
Buddhist monks drank poison:
When we look at the beginning of the vaccine, we first come across Buddhist monks. These people, living in the mountainous regions of Asia, encountered venomous snakes everywhere at any time and could die from even a small bite. They also began to drink non-lethal amounts of venom from the snakes they caught.
The rate at which lethal or disease-causing substances such as poisons and viruses enter the body is extremely important. Sometimes even taking a small amount can strengthen the immune system. This is what Buddhist monks were doing. The small amount of snake venom they took into their bodies taught the body how to fight this venom, and when they actually bitten and ingested a large amount of venom, the body’s defense mechanism fought much more effectively.
The first vaccine in history, smallpox vaccine:
Although some sources indicate the 15th century, some sources indicate the 17th century, we are sure that the place is China. The first vaccine was made against smallpox, which was the biggest scourge of humanity for many years and brought the world upside down for a while. In the first experiment on cows, a scratch was made on the skin, which allowed the animal to contract some smallpox. It turned out that when the animal was given a large amount of virus, it did not die and recovered easily.
The vaccine found in China came to the Turks via the Caucasus. In the Ottoman Empire, at least in Istanbul, there was an advanced vaccination system. In 1721, after Lady Mary, the wife of the British Ambassador, explained this situation to the Pope in a letter, the smallpox vaccine spread all over Europe. At that time, vaccination was done by the variolation method.
Europeans, who learned the vaccination system from us, of course took the variolation method and developed it. Edward Jenner developed the modern smallpox vaccine in 1789. Edward Jenner, who modernized the variolation method applied in the Ottoman lands, is known today as the father of the vaccine.
Louis Pasteur discovers microbes:
Microbiologist Louis Pasteur, who lived a hundred years after Edward Jenner, discovered that it is microbes that cause disease. When he learned that the primary source of infectious diseases was microbes, he developed a vaccine against rabies, one of the greatest curses of humanity at that time, and provided a sigh of relief.
In the light of experiments conducted by Louis Pasteur, live attenuated cholera vaccine was found in 1897 and inactivated anthrax vaccine in 1904. Now it was known what caused the diseases and instead of getting rid of them with primitive methods, vaccines were started to be applied. The plague, which is also one of the greatest scourges of humanity, disappeared with the discovery of a vaccine at the end of the 19th century.
The polio vaccine that saved our children:
Once humanity’s troubles were over, a new disease would appear every day. Our new scourge in the 20th century, this time afflicting children, is polio. Jewish-American virologist Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine in 1955 as a result of his studies, and he has signed an invention that will save the lives of countless children even today.
In the same years, vaccines were found against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, measles, mumps and rubella, many of which had fatal outcomes in childhood. As a result of vaccinations, some of them in groups, some of them individually, the rate of child mortality was greatly reduced.
Hepatitis B vaccine and new vaccines:
When we came to the 1980s, a new scourge, hepatitis B, emerged. The vaccine for this disease, which fell on the United States like a nightmare, was found in 1985. When it was not enough to apply to the risk group, this disease completely disappeared in people under the age of 18 in a short time thanks to the hepatitis B vaccine spread to the public.
Following the Haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine released in the same period, varicella, rotavirus, hepatitis A, pneumococcal, influenza, acellular pertussis and intranasal flu vaccines were also found. These vaccines have been started to be made under the mixed vaccine in order to be much more effective within the scope of special regulations. As a result of the mixed vaccines created specifically for different age groups, many diseases were overcome before they appeared.
Vaccine today:
Today everyone has Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertussis, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Polio, Hib, Hepatitis B, Chickenpox, Hepatitis A , Pneumococcal, Influenza, Rotavirus vaccines are definitely recommended. Of course, a COVID-19 vaccine has now been added to these. These are all preventable diseases. You may not be caught without being vaccinated, but if you are caught, there is a high probability that it will leave permanent damage to your body, even if you do not die and survive.
mRNA vaccine is one of the last and most important inventions of medicine. The biggest factor in the regression of the COVID-19 pandemic to the point it is today, mRNA vaccines teach RNA molecules, which are the DNA protein code, how to fight the disease. Thus, the immune system recognizes the disease before it develops and produces antibodies and cells.
Why should you get vaccinated?
Are you anti-vaccine? You can be. The fire burns where it falls and no one can understand how important the precautions are unless such a disease happens to them. Let’s say you don’t care about scientific data. Let’s see in numbers how some minor diseases were fatal in the pre-vaccine period;
- Between 1346 and 1352, a quarter of the population of Europe died from the plague before the vaccine was discovered.
- Mexico’s population, which was 20 million in 1618, fell to 1.6 million due to smallpox before vaccination.
- The Hawaiian population, which was 500 thousand in 1779, fell to 84 thousand due to typhoid fever before vaccination.
- Before the vaccine was discovered in the 1880s, 9 out of 10 people in Canada had tuberculosis.
- After the First World War, 21 million people died due to the flu epidemic in the period when there was no vaccine.
- A total of 6.31 million people have died in the world for now due to COVID – 19, which we don’t even wear masks today, thanks to vaccinations.
We looked closely at the history of vaccination, which is undoubtedly one of the most important discoveries in the history of humanity, and we talked about how important the vaccine is for human life. It is always better to ignore the information pollution of today’s world and take a step into the reliable world of science.
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