When
I was a small boy, we all were given 3 vaccines: for typhoid-cholera and small
pox. Nowadays, there are innumerable vaccines. As soon as a baby is born
vaccination starts, proper records are maintained to ensure that every child
undergoes all the recommended vaccinations.
Vaccines today can be equated to
quackery. TV and newspapers are full of ads about vaccines. The history of
vaccines is not simple. Many times not only have they proved ineffectual in
arresting a disease but also have been instrumental in spreading those very
disease.
In 1960 polio vaccine was
discovered/manufactured in America which had a component in it called SV 40
virus that increases the possibility of cancer. By the time this fact came to
light crores of children had been vaccinated with it.
In 1871-72, the entire population
of England was given small-pox vaccine but 45000 people died of it even after
vaccination. Similarly in Germany there were 125,000 deaths due to small pox.
Germany started diphtheria
vaccine in 1940. Diphtheria deaths increased from 40,000 in 1945 to 2,50,000.