ABSTRACT
The bicentennial celebration of the first vaccination took place just a few years ago. In 1796, Edward Jenner injected cowpox virus into James Phipps, and later on challenged the boy with fully virulent human smallpox (variola) virus (Jenner 1798). The boy survived, and Jenner thus had protected him against one of the most dreaded human diseases of all time. The smallpox vaccination story ended in triumph over the variola virus, following a worldwide vaccination campaign (Fenner et al. 1988). In recognition of Edward Jenner’s contribution, procedures aimed at protection against disease by pre-mobilization of the immune system were termed
vaccination
, derived from the Latin word for cow,
vacca
. Vaccination is meant to provide the individual with immunological protection before
infection takes place. If the vaccinated proportion of a population is high enough, disease symptoms of the individual, as well as transmission of the disease agent, may be prevented. Ultimately, this may result in eradication of the disease agent, as achieved with smallpox and hoped for with poliovirus (Bloom and Widdus 1998).
