Vaccination

Vaccination is a term coined by Edward Jenner for the process of
administering a weakened form of a disease to patients as a means of giving
them immunity to a more serious form of the disease. The word comes from the
Latin for cow, in honor of the cowpox virus -- a relatively benign virus
that was discovered to have the side effect of conferring immunity to
smallpox, a deadly and highly contagious disease.

Since Jenner's time vaccination has become widespread and applicable to
diseases other than smallpox. Louis Pasteur later developed the technique,
extending it to protection against anthrax (caused by a type of bacterium)
and rabies (caused by a virus) by treating the infectious agents for those
diseases so that they lost their disease-producing abilities. In honour of
Jenner's discovery, which his own work had built on, Pasteur adopted the
name vaccine as a generic term for his these protective injections.
Vaccination is now used to immunize people against many diseases.

Generically the process of protecting against an infectious disease by
"priming" the immune system with material, the immunogen, designed to
stimulate an immune response to the infectious agent is known as
immunization. Vaccination is used where the immunogen is itself a living
infectious agent, normally either a closely related bacterial species (as
with smallpox and cowpox), or by using a strain weakened by some process. In
this case the immunogen is called a vaccine.

In its greatest triumphs, vaccination campaigns have eliminated smallpox
throughout the world and restricted polio to some war-torn countries in
Africa where health care access is difficult. Vaccines have made other once
common childhood diseases rare, as mumps, measles, etc.

Some modern vaccines are administered after the patient already has the
disease as in experimental AIDS, cancer and Alzheimers disease vaccines.

Myths and facts on vaccination

--Myth #1: Measles deaths had declined by 99.4% (from 1901/2, UK) before
vaccination.

--Myth #2: There is no evidence vaccination eliminated smallpox, and
vaccination increased the spread and incidence of the disease, as well as
spreading leprosy, syphilis, TB and the like around the world. Huge
epidemics were caused by compulsory vaccination which was why they repealed
the compulsory vaccination act. Most cases of smallpox had been vaccination.

--Myth #3: The dangers and infectivity of smallpox have been hyped to sell
vaccination. It was considered less dangerous than measles in the 18th
century and 98% curable under homeopaths or naturopaths, while under
allopaths it was 20-30% fatal, due mostly to their use of mercury and
ignorance of diet and nutrition--the main protection against smallpox.

---

-- Fact #1: There are no long-term double-blind randomised controlled
studies of any vaccine for any disease published in any journal in any
country in any time period. (To perform a long-term controlled study of
vaccination, one would take two large groups of people, and vaccinate one
group and not vaccinate the other. Then one would wait and see how the
individuals in each group fared over a period of years.)

-- Fact #2: Epidemiological evidence shows that vaccines are not 100%
effective, that they do have undesirable side effects, and that they
sometimes can cause the disease they seek to prevent.

-- Fact #3: Epidemiological evidence show that vaccine programs can decrease
the incidence and prevalence of disease.

-- Fact #4: Post-exposure prophylaxis vaccination has been demonstarted to
reduce the incidence and severity of such diseases as smallpox and rabies.

-- Fact #5: Some of the reduced incidence in given diseases for which
vaccinations are given is due to improved nutrition and improved sanitation,
and cannot be entirely attributed to the vaccination's effects.

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