VACCINE CONTOVERSY AND PUBLIC HEALTH, WHY AREN’T THERE VACCINES FOR EVERY DISEASE?
“If my next-door neighbor is to be allowed to let his children go unvaccinated, he might as well be allowed to leave strychnine lozenges about in the way of mine.” -Thomas Huxley (1825 – 1895)
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health triumphs. Only vaccines harness the power of body’s immune system to control and to eradicate, most deadly infectious diseases (viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic) and some forms of cancers.
Vaccines are produced by giving a person, either by injection or by mouth, a very weakened form of the live or dead infectious microorganism or a part of its protein makeup, as antigens. Antigens stimulate the body’s immune system to react. The adaptive immune system reacts by producing immune-active white blood cells (lymphocytes and plasma cell) and through them produce given antigen specific antibodies, thereby neutralizing the infectious agent by creating destructive antigen/antibody immune reactions.
Some of the activated white blood cells after finishing their job don’t die. They become memory cells of immunity. They remember the protein makeup of the same infectious agent for years and unleash an immediate immune response to destroy and prevent reinfection, with the same infectious agent.
Unfortunately, there is no universal vaccine against some common diseases like the flu, AIDS, hepatitis C, Tuberculosis, Lyme Disease, other viral diseases or many parasitic diseases such as Malaria, Chagas, Elephantiasis or Liver Flukes.
Viruses have only few proteins to use as “target protein” for vaccine production. Additionally, some viruses like the flu, Hepatitis C and HIV viruses can rapidly change (mutate) their DNA structure and surface proteins. For this reason, effective vaccines can’t be produced if the virus keeps changing it’s genetic makeups.
Bacteria are larger infectious agents. They have about 6,000 different proteins, therefore scientists have to choose a target protein for vaccine production.
Parasites have even more proteins. It is not an easy task to determine, which one to choose among all these proteins as a “target protein,” for effective vaccine production. It is estimated that to produce an effective vaccine, it takes many years of tedious work and research, and over one billion dollars of cost. That is why there is no vaccine for every disease.
Available vaccines are safe, very effective and are crucial for public health. Anti- vaccines opinions that claim vaccines cause autism, mental illness and castration are utterly nonsense.
Religious objections to vaccines are baseless. As I see it, when monolithic religions were conceived, there were no vaccines, even in concept. How can religions be against something that does not exist?
Refusing vaccination for their children cannot be a personal choice because it is not a personal issue, it is a public health issue. Without vaccinations, deadly infectious diseases can become a widespread epidemic and devastate entire populations and public health.
