Will you be part of the immunity solution?

In our community, there are a lot of people who are against vaccination. Some have ideological or religious objections. Others are afraid of needles or are skeptical. There are also the vacillators and procrastinators. I address this article primarily to those just mentioned because their decisions on vaccination will determine their immunity to diseases and also the immunity of others in their families and community. Why should they trust doctors and be vaccinated?

To begin, let’s remember one of the deadliest plagues ever to ravage the lives of our ancestors — smallpox. This is a nasty airborne virus that’s been around for thousands of years; some Egyptian mummies showed signs of this highly contagious, disfiguring disease. Was it due to bad air? Was it a divine punishment? Was it the work of a malevolent spirit? No one knew. Frustrated doctors and scientists had no inkling that there was an incubation period (7-17 days) during which those infected seemed normal and healthy. They did know, however, only too well the symptoms and effects of smallpox: fever, back pain, headaches, nausea and red spots that morphed into pus-filled blisters. When the scabs fell off, those who recovered were left with deep, pitted scars. Some were blind.

In the Middle Ages, this disease was fatal for a third of adults and 80 per cent of children. In the smallpox pandemic of 1520, between five and eight million Europeans died.

Physician Edward Jenner (17491823) treated many smallpox victims. In his era, about 10 per cent of the population died of smallpox (20 per cent in towns and cities). He made an important observation: milkmaids who had a prior infection of cowpox (a mild illness spread from cattle) did not catch smallpox. In 1796, he injected a few people with a small dose of cowpox pus and then exposed them to smallpox. None got sick. Everyone in his study had developed immunity to smallpox! This was an incredible breakthrough for physicians worldwide. Millions of children and adults were vaccinated. By 1979, countries were able to stop routine smallpox vaccinations and by 1980, the World Health Assembly announced that smallpox had been globally eradicated. Jenner is considered “the father of immunology.”

Though the viruses that caused smallpox and measles were deadly, even more lives were lost through bacterial diseases. The Black Bubonic Plague of the 14th century spread throughout Europe wiping out one-third of the population. This dreadful bacterial infection was spread by fleas and rodents. Cholera and typhoid spread through contaminated water and food and also took millions of lives.

Tuberculosis was another bacterial respiratory infection for which there was no cure. Malaria, a mosquito-borne parasitic disease, took countless lives. It took centuries to realize that these bacterial diseases could be mitigated simply by hygienic measures. Thanks to scientists and doctors, however, there was light at the end of this tunnel of death caused by infections and viruses.

Biologist Louis Pasteur discovered that by using heat he could stop bacterial contamination of milk, beer and wine. He also found a cure for rabies. In 1885, one of his patients was a nine-year-old boy who had just been bitten by a rabid dog. Pasteur knew the infection would slowly invade the central nervous system causing headaches, fever and partial paralysis. A desperate Pasteur injected the boy with a weakened dose of the rabies germ for 13 consecutive days and the boy survived with no ill effects. Pasteur did not understand the science — that his injections had built up antibodies enabling the body’s immune system to fight the infection, but he knew that an injected weakened dose of the disease worked. His work inspired physician Joseph Lister to use carbolic acid as an antiseptic to prevent infections that followed surgery (4550 per cent of amputees died after surgery).

Another crucial medical breakthrough occurred in 1928 when Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, an antibiotic able to cure previously untreatable infections. Nobel Prize recipients Paul Ehrlich and Selman Waksman subsequently developed antibiotics to treat a myriad of childhood diseases, including tuberculosis, mumps and measles. They saved the lives of millions of children. Vaccinations have slashed mortality rates and prevented lifelong disabilities.

To reach the level of herd immunity, it will take 80 to 90 per cent of Canadians to be vaccinated. It’s an important level that enables us to return to “normalcy” in our schools, workplaces and social activities. There will still be danger for unvaccinated children and adults, but that danger will have been largely mitigated by those who were willing to be vaccinated. So my question is this: will you be part of the solution?