The Historical Development of Vaccines

Preventative measures to limit the spread of communicable, infectious diseases have been practiced since ancient times. A simple, but often cruel, safeguard was to separate diseased from healthy individuals by isolation or quarantine. These infectious diseases have had significant impacts on life expectancy, infant mortality and population growth. With the exception of safe and clean water no other modality not even antibiotics has had such a major effect on mortality reduction and population growth (Poltkin and Plotkin 1988;1). Thus the impact that vaccine development has had in the scientific, medical and social context is enormous. Through the development of vaccines to combat these infectious diseases the quality of life has increased considerably.
Vaccination is the deliberate attempt to protect humans and confer immunity against these diseases. Thus the purpose of immunisation through vaccination is to stimulate a specific immunological response to a microbial agent or an...