Vaccines are a relevant topic in the world with the “anti-vax” movement and other vaccine-related controversies. As a microbiology student, I have just begun to realize how important they actually are for individual and community health. If people are not willing to get themselves or their children vaccinated, they should at least be aware of the repercussions that it could have on the entire population. Herd immunity is when a certain number of people are vaccinated in the population to prevent others from being infected (because they are not able to be a host.) This especially protects the young, elderly, and immunocompromised. Contrary to some beliefs, vaccines rarely have side effects and they are normally not able to infect a person with the illness/ disease that is being injected.
There are two major classes of vaccines: attenuated and inactivated. In an attenuated vaccine, the pathogen is weakened so that it cannot cause a full-blown disease. It is able to replicate which induces life-long immunity whereas inactivated vaccines are unable to replicate. Boosters are commonly needed in inactivated vaccines because they do not cause infections/ produce lasting antibodies in the host.
Polio, a life-threatening viral disease, has two forms of the vaccination: an IPV (or inactivated virus,) and an OPV, (or attenuated virus.) Although the IPV has helped lower the rates of infection, the OPV has evident advantages because it allows for better immunity since the pill is taken orally and replicates in the mucosa of the throat and intestinal tract. However, one significant disadvantage is that it can sometimes become virulent within the host. Because of this, the US adopted a safer way to administer the vaccines by injecting children with IPV and then OPV. Polio has still not been globally eradicated, but much is being done within the world to achieve this goal.
2019 was a very eventful year in regards to the poliovirus. Two of the three wild-type strains of polio were declared to be officially eradicated in the world. However, there was an increase seen in the amount of people infected with the type-1 strain. Also, as mentioned earlier, certain countries have seen an increased amount of people contracting polio from the OPV vaccination. The worst reality of all is that humans are contributing to the upsurge of polio disease due to the anti-vax movement and false news. For example, in Pakistan, there has been an increase in infected people due to fears and conspiracies about the vaccines causing disease. They have also found that people are refusing vaccines as a political statement. I was devastated to read this news article because parents are subjecting their children and community to a very fatal disease. Furthermore, if someone traveled to Pakistan from another country and they were not vaccinated, they could risk bringing poliovirus back to other parts of the world where it has been eliminated.
Isley's Blog 