Vaccination is one of the biggest breakthroughs in modern medicine. No other medical discovery done to save lives more.
The story of smallpox
SJ bit of history and look specifically into Europe of the 18th century. True or smallpox (variola) had killed thousands of people a day. Once someone this highly contagious disease got its prospects were not too happy. A third of infected died and those who survived remained blind or zohavujícími scars on the face.
Fortunately, the smallpox officially eradicated in 1980, thanks to vaccination. Until then, every year had been responsible for up to 2 million lives.
Polio and the "iron lung"
Polio is a disease caused by a virus which destroys nerve cells. The dreaded disease caused that every day more than 1,000 children around the world paralyzed limbs. Often, moreover, paralysis and respiratory muscles , so some children were suffocated. The only way to keep such people in life was to put them in giant metal instrument called "iron lung" that help them breathe. Even 50 years ago, we found a hospital department equipped with these devices.
Incurable and deadly polio after the introduction of universal vaccination eradicated in many parts of the world. There are only a few countries in Africa and Asia where vaccinates and therefore in them any more polio cases occur.
Why linger in vaccination
Due to mandatory vaccinations are today's children are protected from other dangerous diseases such as diphtheria or whooping cough. It is a disease, which can also lead to death. All these diseases are now so rare that it is easy to underestimate the importance of vaccination in children.
However, whooping cough, diphtheria and polio remains a threat. These diseases now occur very little, but if we stop children vaccinated against them, they can come back in full force. Here are actual cases:
Because of fear of the risk of the vaccine against whooping cough they do not leave parents in the 70s and 80s of the last century, their children vaccinated against the disease. And what happened? Broke three epidemics of whooping cough, and at least 100 children have died as a result of infection.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, which collapsed vaccination program for children in Russia raging epidemic of diphtheria.
For those for whom these examples are not enough, we add some interesting numbers:
According to statistics saved vaccination against smallpox 530 million lives
Since 1988, polio vaccination 2.5 billion children
in 1988 raged polio in 125 countries, in 2016 cases of polio were reported from only three countries (Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria)
It is estimated that the polio vaccine to save at least 120 million lives, diphtheria 60 million lives and pertussis 14 million lives.
Source: U lékaře.cz