Today, we take vaccines for granted. But vaccines are the outcome of the human endeavour to ride the wave of science to conquer the scourge of infectious diseases.

Vaccines work on the innate concept of awakening the (human) body to fight the microbes of a disease that is likely to attack mankind.

How the invention of vaccines saved mankind:

Rabies, Anthrax, Cholera: Louis Pasteur was a French chemist who created the first vaccines for both rabies and anthrax. Pasteur also invented the process that helps make milk and other liquids (and occasionally foods) safer to consume.

It is said that Pasteur, a chemist, did not find the germ of hydrophobia. He left that to the medical men. But one of his disciples, Negri, discovered it in 1903. And, before Pasteur died, another of his disciples, Emilie Roux, developed the diphtheria antitoxin, in 1894.

Plague, Measles, Mumps, Rubella: The plague vaccine was also invented in the late 19th Century. Between 1890 and 1950, bacterial vaccine development proliferated, including the Bacillus-Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination, which is still in use today.

Attenuated strains of measles, mumps and rubella were developed for inclusion in vaccines. Measles is currently the next possible target for elimination via vaccination.

Polio: Viral tissue culture methods developed from 1950 to 1985 and led to the advent of the Salk (inactivated) polio vaccine and the Sabin (live attenuated oral) polio vaccine. Mass polio immunisation has now eradicated the disease from many regions around the world.

COVID-19: The latest victory on the vaccines front has been that of COVID-19 as millions of lives have been saved from falling prey to severe infections of the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus. But there has been a lot of propaganda and misinformation campaigns going around the world, projecting vaccines as some form of the element of the scam.

Globally, COVID-19 put a huge strain on health systems and services, which now threatens to reverse years of hard-won progress on routine immunizations around the world.

World Immunization Week – celebrated every year during the last week of April – brings together partners across the world to promote the use of vaccines that protect people of all ages against disease. Spearheaded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the theme for this year’s World Immunization Week is #LongLifeForAll.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director-General of the World Health Organisation said, “World Immunization Week 2022 is the moment to get essential immunization back on track and launch catch up campaigns to ensure that everyone everywhere has access to life-saving vaccines.”

Just like Louis Pasteur – one of humanity’s all-time benefactors who did his great work against the jealousies said before he died: “Much has been done, but there remains a great deal to do.”

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