From smallpox to measles, then and now, vaccination saves lives
SMALLPOX is largely unheard of today. Thanks to concerted global efforts, this horrible disease was eradicated in the early 1950s. Measles could go the same way.
Smallpox is an ancient disease with a terrifying reputation. In the 16th century it was introduced to the Americas by the Spanish conquistadores and laid waste the mighty Aztec and Inca empires. At the time of the Spanish conquest, between 1519 and 1520, the Aztec population numbered around 26 million people. By 1620, after a wave of catastrophic epidemics, the Aztecs were reduced to less than 1.6 million.
In 1797, the British physician Edward Jenner made a stunning person through inoculation, the same infection was produced. It was a practice known as variolation. He then showed that an inoculated person was protected from future exposure to the smallpox virus. He called the procedure “vaccination.” brought smallpox vaccination across the vast swathes of the empire.
Commanding the expedition was Francis Xavier de Balmis. The journey lasted years and covered the Americas, the Philippines, Macau and Canton. The plan was to establish vaccination boards and inoculate as many people as possible.
The live vaccine was initially transported by 22 orphaned children aged between 8 and 10 years. These children had never been exposed to the smallpox virus nor
- tule lesions, which would appear a
would be transferred from child to child through skin contact.
The expedition set off from Spain in November 1803, traveled west via the Canary Islands and Puerto Rico, to Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Panama, Ecuador, and Mexico where, from the to the Philippines, arriving in Manila on April 15, 1805. The original 22 children from Spain remained in Mexico. They were replaced by a fresh group of 26 orphaned Mexican children who went on to the Philippines. The majority of these children were aged between 4 and 6 years.
High-ranking Catholic clergy, skeptical of vaccination resisted the operations of De Balmis and his crew. The Philippine mission would have failed had it not been for the intervention of the governor who permitted the vac-
De Balmis vaccinated approximately 20,000 people in the Philippines. As they did elsewhere on previous stops, vaccination boards were established which served to
of vaccination, organize the local production of the cowpox lymph and administer the vaccine, and document and register immunizations.
Historians agree that children played a leading role in the success of this pioneering expedition. Writing in 2015, Spanish scholars José Tuells and José Duro-Torrijos argued that these children were simply used, callously “instrumentalized” for scientific purposes. They endured horrendous hardship onboard ship, suffering from sickness and malnutrition. For their participation, they were promised an “education, an occupation or destiny to live with according to their class, and those who were taken…will be brought back to their hometowns.” The State failed the children. Those who survived the journey but had no homes to return to faced abandonment in poorhouses.
There is a direct causal connection between a decline in vaccination coverage and death. For a population to remain protected from infectious diseases, a country must maintain an immunization rate of 95 percent.
In 2016, the immunization rate for measles in the Philippines stood at 75 percent. It fell sharply in 2017 to 60 percent and continued to drop in the wake of the Dengvaxia controversy. The willful dissemination of false information and fearmongering, committed by vain, self-interested, ruthless political opportunists has cost many lives.
We are now in the grip of a measles outbreak. From Manila, the virus has rapidly spread to the rest of the country. Since the weekend, more than 70 people, mainly young children, are now needlessly dead. This is both tragic and criminal. The government must vigorously push the routine immunization program and do everything it can to restore faith in vaccination. At stake are the lives of 2.5 million babies and children. At stake is our future.