By Mahad Ali
Vaccinations – the brilliant invention.
Vaccinations have become one of the most pivotal parts of helping our bodies fight various new diseases. When it was invented in 1796 by Edward Jenner, who was a famous English physicist, for a then exceptionally deadly disease called smallpox, (which killed over 300 million people) vaccines were relatively unknown, and were thought to bring bad luck to people, and no one took it. People continued with their methods of treating diseases, but after a lot of convincing, people eventually succumbed to getting vaccinations. It took less than 176 years to completely eradicate this, now wiped out the disease. Amazing. However, those vaccines were made with But how do vaccines work, to trick our brain into thinking there is a weak virus inside us? How are they made? How have they changed over time, to create a human-friendly and safe vaccine? How do they affect the immune system and our body?
What are vaccines?
“I’d much rather have a vaccination than a virus’ ‘ said celebrated doctor Paul A. Voulburg. But, what are vaccinations and what are they made of to help our body fight diseases? As per Wikipedia, the word vaccination is defined as “ treatment with a vaccine to produce immunity to a particular infectious disease or pathogen”. Vaccinations are a simple, safe way to protect your body from new diseases that your immune system can’t detect. Your immune system cannot react to a virus it has never experienced before, as it does not know how to fight it. For example, when the recent epidemic of COVID-19 came around, people were stressed about getting the vaccine, so they could be protected from the disease. And even if they got the disease, the immune system would immediately recognize it and tackle it easily. According to Our World of Data, 2-3 million people are saved every year from dying, due to getting vaccinations! Over time, scientists have created many vaccines using dead viruses. Over 613 million doses of vaccinations have been given in the United States of America. It’s been a revolution. But what are vaccinations made of if they are super effective for the immune system?
Ingredients of a Vaccine
That leads to the next point, which is vaccination ingredients. Vaccinations are made of plenty of things that help the body fight the disease. In this example, the ingredients of the recent COVID-19 ingredients are used. There are many more vaccination ingredients, but these are the main, important ones.
A very small dose of live but weakened bacteria/Antigens:
This ingredient of the vaccine is arguably one of the most important ingredients as it helps the body tackle the disease when a person contracts it. Although it may seem questionable to put a virus inside of the immune system, when it does not know how to tackle the virus, the virus is weakened and does not do any damage to your body, however long it may take. As vaccines are made for viruses that the body has never contracted before, vaccines help the immune system recognize, and develop a plan to defeat the virus if faced with it again, or in simpler words, they develop immunity against the virus.
Killed viruses:
This ingredient is very similar to the ingredient mentioned before. Killed viruses are viruses that were contracted from the disease but are now killed, instead of weakened. Some vaccines, like Hepatitis A, use killed viruses instead of weakened bacteria for various reasons, like it being safe for people with immune system problems, but they are the same.
A small dose of modified toxin:
This is the toxin which is produced by the bacteria in the vaccine. The bacteria has been modified to make the toxin non-toxic. The immune system response targets this toxin. This helps the immune system identify the toxin and therefore have an appropriate response
Adjuvants:
Adjuvants help the body have a stronger immune response, so they eliminate the virus quicker, recognize it quicker, and therefore help your body stay healthier. Adjuvants are made up of various things like aluminum, oil, and water emulsion sugars and fats from bacterial cell walls, or synthetic nucleic acids from microorganisms.
Stabilizers:
Stabilizers are used to protect ingredients when they are in the stages of manufacturing, storage, and transportation. This helps the vaccine stay stable, and not deter in these stages. Some common stabilizers include gelatin.
Preservatives:
Preservatives are used to prevent bacterial infection of the vaccine. If bacteria infect the virus, the vaccine will become a threat to your body and therefore will limit how much the vaccine can help you. It is very important to have preservatives, as when bacteria infect, not only does it weaken the virus, as I mentioned before, but it can kill people. In the typhoid vaccine, where in some of those vaccines, preservatives were not added, a disease called Staphylococcus aureus entered the vaccine, and killed four people, 26 people developed local abscesses, and a further 68 developed severe system infections. Preservatives are also mainly used for vaccines that will not be used for a long time, as when things are left around, bacteria start to grow on the product.
Vaccination effects on the immune system
There are many effects of vaccines on your immune system. The main effect of vaccines on your immune system is the activation of your immune cells. These immune cells help your body combat the disease and recognize it. Also, lots of antibody is produced in your immune system to neutralize the antigens that were in the vaccination. To add on, the vaccines can stimulate cellular immunity, which involves T-cells attacking cells with pathogens. This can help the T-cells recognize the virus as well, and fight the vaccine if it ever comes back for a visit. This is important, as T-cells are one of the most important cells in your body, along with Neutrophils, White blood cells, and macrophages. T-Cells are also one of the main warriors in protecting you from disease and fighting it, so when the T-Cells recognize that the same virus has come back, they immediately attack. Also, white blood cells are released to defend the body from the virus. White blood cells identify the microbe, produce antibodies to fight it and help other immune responses to occur. They also ‘remember’ the attack, so if it comes back again, the White blood cells immediately attack and tell the immune system. Many more small features can help the immune system amp up its attacks when faced with a virus. Therefore, vaccinations have a big part in affecting the immune system positively.
Vaccination effects on your body
There are a lot of effects on the body from vaccinations. Side effects may seem painful, but it is a good sign, as it shows that your body is fighting the weakened bacteria in your body, learning how and what to do when the virus enters your body. It’s important to know that side effects only last for a couple of days and then go away, unlike toothaches which can last for a longer period. One of the main effects on your body is that your arm which you got your vaccine starts to ache. This is because after the vaccine enters your body, your arm muscle stretches, and your muscle fibers trigger an immune response, due to the muscle stretching. Also, your body might experience a headache after you get a vaccine. This is because the vaccination increases your blood flow, and in doing that more immune cells can help fight the germs and clear them quickly. It also increases your body temperature, which leads to headaches, so that your immune system can kill the viruses due to the high temperature. Some other common effects on your body include diarrhea, loss of appetite, Swollen lymph nodes, chills, nausea, fever, and various other things. People get different types of side effects due to their age, and their health status, so it is important to remember that some people may get one side effect while another person might get a completely different side effect.
Evolution of Vaccines.
Vaccines have come a long way since it was first invented. Vaccines were first invented by Dr Edward Jenner in 1796, as mentioned above. He wanted to make a vaccine that could help people battle smallpox, which was a very deadly and common disease back in the 18th century. The vaccine was made from a cowpox sore on the hand of a milkmaid. The person who got vaccinated, James Phipps, who was eight years old, felt quite sick for the first couple of days but eventually got better. Edward Jenner also practiced a method used a long time ago, which was exposing healthy people to a specific disease, in this case, Smallpox. The practice was called ‘variolation’. In 1872, nearly a hundred years after the Smallpox vaccine, a discovery was made. This time it was Louis Pasteur, who created the first laboratory vaccination. 13 years later, in 1885, Louis Pasteur also prevented rabies, by preventing clinical people among those who had already been affected with rabies. This treatment, however, was controversial. To add to the inventions in the 20th century, Dr Anna Wessles William isolated some diphtheria bacteria, which helped to create an antibody, which turned out to be extremely useful. In 1937, just after the Spanish Flu pandemic, three people, Max Theiler, Hugh Smith, and Eugen Haagen invented the vaccine against Yellow Fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, and kills 30,000 people per year. This helps the world start to battle against yellow fever. In 1967, the World Health Organization started its program to eradicate smallpox. Then in 1988, similar things happened with the Polio disease. And instantly, results start pouring in. Polio was eradicated in both South and North America in 1994, and by 2003, the Polio disease was in just 6 countries. Things were then going well for a couple of decades, until, in 2020, COVID-19 started. This became one of the deadliest and most easily spreading viruses. But not for long, as scientists magically created a vaccine, just one year after the first disease. Vaccines have come a long way since the first one was invented.
Summary
In conclusion, Vaccines are arguably one of the most important inventions in the world. We get protected from them and stay safe from them. Vaccines are made of various ingredients, which help protect the body and make the vaccines safe. Vaccines also have various effects on the immune system and our body. Finally, vaccines have come a long way since they were first invented, from using parts of cows to using technology. It is important to learn how vaccines help us, so we know how important it is to take them and if you’re blown away with the inventions already made – it’s only the beginning of vaccines.
References:
A Brief History of Vaccinations (n.d.) accessed 21 August 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/a-brief-history-of-vaccination
Vaccination Safety (n.d.) accessed 24 August 2023.
COVID-19 Vaccine side effects (n.d.) accessed 29 August 2023. https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/07/covid-19-vaccination-fact-sheet-side-effects-of-covid-19-vaccines-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples.pdf
Smallpox and the story of Vaccination, image, accessed 31 August 2023. (Picture 1)
https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/smallpox-and-story-vaccination
Why does my arm hurt after I get a shot? (n.d.) accessed 31 August 2023. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-does-my-arm-hurt-after-i-get-a-shot#:~:text=Why%3F,to%20 temporary%20 inflammation%20and%20 discomfort.
What is in a vaccine?, image, accessed 31 August 2023. (picture 2) https://www.science.org.au/education/immunisation-climate-change-genetic-modification/science-immunisation/2-what-vaccine
Side Effects of COVID-19 Vaccines (n.d.) accessed 1 September 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/side-effects-of-covid-19-vaccines#:~:text=It’s%20command%20to%20 experience%20some,order%20to%20kill%20the%20virus.
A brief history of vaccines (n.d.) accessed 1 September 2023. https://www.who.int/news-room/spotlight/history-of-vaccination/a-brief-history-of-vaccination