Vaccines And Immunizations On The Health Of Citizens Of...

There are two measures in public health who have had an extraordinary impact on the health of citizens of the world over the years: water purification and vaccinations. Vaccinations are important and vital to maintaining a long and healthy life, in conjunction to immunizations. There is indeed a difference between a vaccination and an immunization. A vaccine contains a live, but weakened, or dead germ that is able to cause a particular disease such as tetanus or the flu. A vaccine is the action of being injected with a germ and immunization is the action of the body developing antibodies against the germ that was presented via injection. In this paper, I will discuss the history, the pros and cons and my viewpoint with supporting information about vaccines and immunizations. The history of vaccines dates back to ancient China, where there are writings from the eleventh century that make reference to a primitive form of vaccination, which they called â€Å"variolization.† Variolization, or engrafting, is the inoculation of smallpox pus in order to cause smallpox in an attenuated form and thus immunize the patient. This practice was not without risks as a number of people vaccinated in this form contracted a severe form of smallpox and unfortunately passed away. Variolization was introduced in Europe, specifically in Great Britain, in 1721 by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. â€Å"During a smallpox epidemic in April 1721, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu asked Dr. Charles Maitland to ‘engraft’ her