english 120

09 Jun english 120

Alhajji 1

Alhajji 6

JafarAlhajji

Professor:

English homework

May 1, 2019

Vaccines safety and effectiveness

Do you think vaccination is an important or just harmful substance forced by pharmaceutical companies cooperating with the governments to inject into people? A vaccine can be defined as “biological preparations that, when introduced into the body, cause an individual to acquire immunity to a specific disease” (Davidson. 7). So, for decades, vaccines have been considered one of the best revaluation in medical practice. A long time ago, people all around the world tried to fight with different kinds of fatal diseases by different ways, and one of the most Significant ways is to make a vaccine, to prevent such life-threatening diseases. The first vaccine was against the Smallpox disease. Smallpox is a highly contagious disease and caused a lot of fatalities all around the world, and it is transmitted between people by inhalation of droplets of virus or direct contact with smallpox lesion secretions (Davidson 25). It is a deadly disease, it caused blindness and permanent scars in the patients that survived. Finally, after several attempts to make a vaccine for Smallpox, Edward succeeded to produce an effective and safe vaccine in 1796 by using the cowpox vaccine to protect from smallpox. Cowpox is a disease caused by cows and transferred to a human, and Jenner’s theory was based that whoever had cowpox will be immunized against smallpox (Davidson29).“Edward Jenner was an English country doctor who introduced the vaccine for smallpox . Previously a keen practitioner of smallpox  inoculation .”

Then, century after century, the vaccine after the vaccine was developed for different kinds of diseases. In the 20th century, one of the most known vaccines was Diphtheria and Tetanus vaccines. Diphtheria is a respiratory illness, causing the release of exotoxin from Corynebacterium diphtheria bacteria which leads to the death of mucous cells in the throat, mouth, and nose, and as a result of cells accumulation the pseudo-membrane are build up and block the airways of the patients which causes death (Davidson42) After years of experiments and trials to make a vaccine to fight this disease, Gaston Ramona French veterinarian and biologist who realized that attenuated Diphtheria toxin is able to activate the immune system of people without causing serious side effects, and by 1927, the toxoid vaccine was freely used all around the world, and it succeeds to drop the number of cases of diphtheria. Then, by using the same way of toxoid, combined Diphtheria and Tetanus Toxoid vaccines were produced. Tetanus can be described as a nerves system infection that leads to spasm and contract of body muscles, especially jaw muscles which make the patients unable to open their mouths (Davidson. 44)

Another example of one of the most significant vaccine is a Polio vaccine. Polio disease, mainly affecting children under 5 years old, and leading to paralysis and often to death due to immobilization of respiratory muscles. There were several attempts to make the vaccine, and it was a competition between Jonas E. Salk and Albert Sabin to make it. Finally, it was done, and both succeed, Jonas E. Salk made the “killed virus” vaccine, while Albert Sabin succeeds to make the oral vaccine. From that time till now both vaccines use to prevent children from getting Polio. (Kurlander, 2015)

After all these examples, it is hard to argue the importance of vaccines. However, there is a huge debate about the efficacy and safety of vaccines, especially some recent vaccines which leads to a lot of disagreement about whether or not people should continue using vaccines.

A vaccine is an important medical tool to be considered for all parents and their children because it has eliminated many serious diseases, decrease the mortality and morbidity rate, to save money, expanding the medical practice options, protect other people who cannot be vaccinated, and for safe travel.

Vaccines help total elimination in some of the fatal diseases such as Smallpox, Diphtheria, Tetanus, and Polio. These diseases caused a lot of deaths and disabilities all over the world and the people suffered for a long period of time-fighting these diseases. For example, according to “World Health Organization” mortality rate of variola major, caused virus of Smallpox, is 30% and 60-80% of the survivors are marked with permanent scars, mostly on their faces, and this disease has been totally eradicated all over the world after discovering the vaccine. Moreover, WHO cited that Polio disease leads to paralysis of 1 child out of 200, and 5- 10 % of them may die because of respiratory failure due to paralysis of respiratory muscles. Because of vaccination, the disease almost disappeared since 1988 till 2017, and this vaccine has saved more than 16 million people from getting paralysis.

In that period where was an epidemic break of certain kinds of infectious diseases, countries and medical organizations spend a lot of money trying to fight the disaster and to support the patient as much as possible with expensive equipment. So, after the idea of vaccines spread and applied over the world, this money can be beneficial for other purposes. (Rappuoli, 2014) Cited that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the US predict saving approximately $300 billion during 1994–2013 due to vaccinations.

The idea of vaccination gives the scientist other ways to fight with different diseases in medical practice, instant of the regular ones. In this case, scientists may think of different ways to prevent the disease from happening rather than treat it. Nowadays scientists try to make vaccines for different kinds of diseases and even for non-infectious ones like cancers and allergy. according to (Middendorf, 2011) (E57) -an additive vaccine to the treatment of cancer after the first attack to protect the patient from the disease relapse- has been given to patients with a specific type of breast cancer, and it has promising results in minimizing the risk of relapse. Another Example is that (Suzuki, et al., 2011) found that it is possible to make an oral vaccine from rice as mite allergen to prevent an allergic reaction in patients with asthma. Therefore, that considered as an approval of the success of vaccination.

Hard immunity or Community immunity can be defined as stop spreading of infectious disease to people who cannot be vaccinated by increasing the percentage of the vaccinated population around them. By this way, it will be hard to unvaccinated people to get infected or transfer the infection. “For example;19 out of every 20 people need to be vaccinated against measles to protect people who are not vaccinated”. Elderly People, week immune system patients like people on chemotherapy, and HIV patients are examples of people who cannot be vaccinated, so their protection totally depends on their community if they were vaccinated or not!

According to Vaccine herd effect search who was published on 2011, claims that Haemophilus influenza type b cases decline by 90% between 1986 to 1996 in children age 5 years who were not vaccinated due to increase vaccinated population. Also, regarding meningococcal vaccines hard effect, they climb that due to vaccination in infant, the cases also decline in unvaccinated groups by 67% in those aged 1-17 years old and 35% in those aged >25 years old.

Although vaccines help to eliminate fatal diseases from all around the world, still some countries may still have some infectious diseases because of lack of medical awareness or due to financial causes. And theses disease easy to get a transfer and carry it out from these countries by travelers to their countries, so if they weren’t vaccinated, that may lead to spread the disease and may lead to an outbreak. Moreover, some of these diseases may lead to death or series effects.

Also, the chances of getting any infectious disease increases in crowded places. According to Herbert L. Dupont, mass gathering creates a lot of concerns when it comes to the spread of infectious disease. According to him most of the infectious diseases are spread through contact and includes tuberculosis, measures, and influenza. And Muslim Hajj is the largest gathering of people from all around the world as stated in WHO, so there is a high risk of getting a disease there if the pilgrims were not vaccinated. For example; Polio case and meningococcal strains have been discovered from returning pilgrims. Local requirement vaccine is meningococcal ACWY, and some other recommended such as influenza and hepatitis B, for pilgrims. For those traveling to congested areas such as Hajj, different states make it mandatory for them to seek health care provider’s advice about available vaccinations. In many cases, for those traveling in abroad, they are always advised to be vaccinated against different infectious diseases present in the countries they are heading to. Also, health care providers have duties of advising people about available recommendation about travel vaccines for those going to clouded places or gatherings.

Although vaccines are important and helpful in getting rid of fatal diseases, there are a lot of people against it and their main reasons are either blaming the pharmaceutical companies that only care about money or having concerns about vaccines safety.

Another significant reason that they claim against vaccination is the concerns regard it is safety, especially parents who refuse to vaccinate their children because they are worried about their children health. However, the most common side effects of vaccines are mild and tolerated; for example, (Barlow, 2001) found that there is significant increase in a febrile seizure on the same day of DTP, vaccine and 1-2 weeks after MMR dose, but there is not long lasting negative effect. However, a febrile seizure is a common type of seizures on infants, especially if they have a fever. So, it is a normal response after vaccination because usually, the infants express fever after.

There is tiny present to get a serious reaction after taking vaccines; For example, (Kimmel, Burns, Wolfe, & Zimmerman,2007), illustrate that anaphylaxis reaction may happen after hepatitis B vaccine by 1 in 600,000. However, anaphylaxis reaction is very fast allergic reaction results in sudden hypotension and maybe fainting, but because vaccines are usually given on a medical care unit so this reaction can be easily maintained by giving adrenalin to increase the blood pressure, and there are no lasting negative effects.

And an example of a falsely side effect is claiming that the hepatitis B vaccine can cause multiple sclerosis- dangerous auto-immune disease. (Ascherio, 2001) argue there is no relation between the hepatitis B vaccine and multiple sclerosis disease. Moreover, in case of side effects, especially the serious or life-threatening ones, there are special adverse drug reaction reporting systems on each country. And that system can be accessed by the health care team, or by the public.

A vaccine is a biological way to produce immunity on the individual against certain kinds of diseases. Vaccination has been a subject of debate on the last few years. Some people claim that vaccination is only a trap from pharmaceutical companies to steal their money, and it has fatal side effects. While other groups of people think it is an essential medical procedure to be done to protect their self and the upcoming generation from such diseases. According to scientific articles and trusted health organizations, vaccination consider a very important because it improves people’s health status by elimination of some fatal diseases, save money, which spending to fight these diseases, widening the range of methods to efface the diseases, protect other people who cannot be vaccinated by the hard immunity effect, and improve the safety of traveling. On the other hand, maybe there are some side effects of using vaccines but these side effects either minor, rare or not caused by vaccines. The benefits of vaccines overweight the risks, and these are normal in the medical field since no medication is free of side effect, even the natural products. Especially for young children, vaccinations are very crucial, it prevents children from contract serious illness and complications. Studies have shown that there are more reported cases of infectious diseases and deaths in countries and areas where vaccination was not administered as compared to vaccinated areas. For those who believe that vaccines are not safe, they are not on the right track as all vaccines are always reviewed by scientists, governments, and doctors. Also, different non-governmental organizations support the use of vaccines and insist there are always safe for use.

Works Cited

Barlow, et al. “The risk of seizures after receipt of whole-cell pertussis or measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.” The New England journal of medicine. 30 Aug. 2001. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 02 Apr. 2019

Barlow, et al.” Vaccination Greatly Reduces Disease, Disability, Death, and Inequity Worldwide.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization, 4 Mar. 2011

Bystander Suppression.” Plant Biotechnology Journal, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Dec. 2011

Davidson, Tish. Vaccines: History, Science, and Issues. Greenwood, an Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017.

Human Services, U.S. Department of Health &. “Five Important Reasons to Vaccinate Your Child.” Vaccines, 2018,

KIMMEL, SANFORD R. “Addressing immunization barriers, benefits, and risks.” Addressing immunization barriers, benefits, and risks. Feb. 2007.

Kim, Tae Hyong, et al. “Vaccine Herd Effect.” Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases, Informa Healthcare, Sept. 2011

Mittendorf, Elizabeth A, et al. “Clinical trial results of the HER-2/neu (E75) vaccine to prevent breast cancer recurrence in high-risk patients: From US Military Cancer Institute Clinical Trials Group Study I-01 and I-02.” Cancer. 15 May 2012. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 02 Apr.

Ministries, et al. “Mothers Welcome World’s First Malaria Vaccine in Malawi.” World Health Organization, World Health Organization

Rappuoli, Rino. “Vaccines: Science, health, longevity, and wealth.” PNAS. 26 Aug. 2014. National Academy of Sciences. 02 Apr. 2019 <https://www.pnas.org/content/111/34/12282>.

Romina Libster, “Herd immunity (Herd protection).” Herd immunity (Herd protection) | Vaccine Knowledge. 26 Nov. 2018. 26 Apr. 2019

Suzuki, Kazuya, et al. “Prevention of Allergic Asthma by Vaccination with Transgenic Rice Seed Expressing Mite Allergen: Induction of Allergen-Specific Oral Tolerance without

Vadheim, V. Rebolledo, et al. “The risk of seizures after receipt of whole-cell pertussis or measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine.” The New England journal of medicine. 30 Aug. 2001. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 02 Apr. 2019

Vindu. “The Vaccine That Changed the World.” The Polio Story. Mar. 2015