Last Updated: August 27, 2024
Throughout the month of August, we are observing National Immunization Awareness Month to shine the spotlight on the importance to everyone of routine, everyday immunizations.
Today, children and adults have protection against what were once deadly diseases stalking the human population: polio, rubella, influenza, measles, tetanus, pertussis, and others. But we’ve had a long path of scientific advances to get to this point.
It was 226 years ago in 1798, that Edward Jenner in Great Britain published his work on the development of the world’s first vaccination against one of the most dreaded diseases of its day: smallpox.
In 1877, French scientist Louis Pasteur developed the germ theory of disease. Two years later, in 1879, he developed the first live bacterial vaccine that protected the patient against chicken cholera. Just six years later in 1885, Pasteur used the first vaccine against rabies in humans.
Researchers around the world, over the next couple of decades, developed and deployed various vaccines against the big killers of the day: cholera, diphtheria, and typhoid.
In 1900, life expectancy in the United States was only 47.3 years. Most deaths came from diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis, smallpox, pertussis, measles and typhoid fever. Children and young people were the most affected. Today, life expectancy is 78.7 years. Diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and cancer are the leading causes of death. A recent study collected the data of the reported infectious diseases in the U.S. from 1888. It concluded that since 1924 vaccines have prevented:
- 40 million cases of diphtheria
- 35 million cases of measles
- a total of 103 million cases of childhood diseases
Today, the great disease killers of children and young adults have largely been vanquished. It began in 1955 with Dr. Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine and in 1961 with Dr. Albert Sabin’s polio vaccine. Then, advancements came quickly:
- Rubella in 1966
- Mumps in 1967
- The first combination vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella in 1971
- The first hepatitis B viral vaccines in 1981
- Varicella (chickenpox) in 1995
The Code of Virginia requires 11 vaccinations administered from birth to the late teenage years that prevent once-deadly communicable diseases that struck fear into the hearts of parents.
Learn more at the VDH Division of Immunization webpage. You can
- request a copy of your lifetime vaccination record
- schedule vaccinations
- keep abreast of the latest advancements in vaccine science
You may also call Vaccinate Virginia at (877) VAX-IN-VA or (877) 829-4682, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Help is available in English, Spanish, and more than 100 other languages.