Vaccine refers to a medical preparation designed and implemented to train the immune system to recognize disease-causing pathogens. Once trained, the immune system reacts to the arrival of the same type of pathogens and mounts an immune attack. The primary purpose of vaccination is to generate immunity in the form of disease-specific neutralizing antibodies.
The very first vaccine was developed using preparations from cowpox crusts from infected milkmaids to immunize healthy individuals against smallpox. The ground-breaking work was pioneered by Dr. Edward Jenner, a country physician in England in the late 18th century. Of course, as with all scientific discoveries and inventions, it always takes a village. The developmental process involving the smallpox vaccine, too, had its share of teamwork. However, the fact that Dr. Jenner is the one who has received the most attention in this endeavor comes from the fact that it was Dr. Jenner who judiciously documented the research processes and published the findings in a peer-reviewed medical journal. There is an adage that goes like this—If it is not written down, it didn’t happen!
Following the very first smallpox vaccine since the late 18th century are additional vaccines against a multitude of diseases in different categories of vaccine platforms.
Vaccine types include:
- Live attenuated vaccines
- Vaccines based on subunit, conjugate, polysaccharides, and recombinant constructs
- Inactivated vaccines
- Toxoid vaccines
- Vaccines based on viral vectors
- mRNA vaccines
