The History of Vaccines Blog

A recent paper published in Journal of Virology describes sporadic and sustained outbreaks of illness from vaccine-derived polioviruses in Nigeria. This study draws attention to what is often called the polio endgame – the vaccines and immunization activities that will be necessary to eradicate polio, given the ability of vaccine-derived viruses from the live polio vaccines to circulate and cause disease. To understand the complications of eradicating polio, it’s necessary to know that three types of wild poliovirus have been identified. Types 1 and 3 are responsible for all cases of wild polio in the remaining polio-endemic countries of Pakistan and Nigeria. (Very recent polio cases in Kenya and Somalia are due to Type 1 wild poliovirus.) Type 2 wild poliovirus has not been detected since 1999, when it was found in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is presumed to be eliminated. More

Day 2 of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases Annual Conference on Vaccine Research included a focus on maternal immunization. Carol J. Baker, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine, opened the session (much to our pleasure!) with the history of evidence of the effectiveness of maternal immunization for preventing disease in newborns via passive transfer of antibodies via placenta or breastmilk. It’s generally accepted that this passive immunity, for some diseases, benefits the baby for about the first six months of life. We haven’t had a chance to look up her references, but she mentioned evidence from 1879 that showed vaccination with vaccinia prevented smallpox in infants, from 1938 showing that maternal immunization with whole-cell pertussis vaccine protected infants from pertussis complications, from 1961 showing vaccine-induced  tetanus immunity transfer from mother to baby in New Guinea, and, finally, from 2011 leading to recommendation of pertussis-containing vaccine and influenza vaccine for pregnant women. More

 Hilary Koprowski, Fellow of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and a member of the advisory board for The History of Vaccines, died on April 11, 2013. He was 96 years old. Born in Poland in 1915, Koprowski’s long tenure in vaccine research began in 1939 when he received an M.D. degree from the University of Warsaw. After moving to the United States, he developed the first live oral polio vaccine to be used in large-scale trials, administered to the first child in 1950. More

Instead of a teething ring, I had a passport. Between a military father and diplomatic step-father, my family moved every year or two or three to exotic places, from Taiwan to the Philippines to Ecuador. Tucked into my passport was another essential travel document, the International Certificates of Vaccination issued by the federal government, a yellow-paper catalog of inoculations with separate pages for smallpox, yellow fever, and cholera. When traveling during the 1950s and 1960s, before computerized databases, immigration officials examined my passport in one hand, the dog-eared vaccination record in the other. Reviewing the vaccination record now, I still derive the same satisfaction that I experienced as a school kid in reading my vaccination history—which we kids called our “shot records”--as a chronology of health accomplishment, a medical report card. A visit to the doctor before taking a trip became so routine that I ceased to fear needle punctures. Rather, I looked forward to having the administering physician sign and return my vaccination record. More