I serve as the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Faced by a confusing array of conflicting information on child health, many parents find themselves unsure of how best to protect their children. The Vaccine Education Center strives to provide clear, science-based resources to help parents sort fact from fiction.
Launched in 2000, the Vaccine Education Center is supported solely by the hospital and medical grants, refusing financial interest from vaccine manufacturers or other organizations that might stand to gain through the center’s activities.
The Vaccine Education Center website addresses topics such as the safety of vaccines, when children (and adults) should receive vaccinations, and considerations surrounding vaccination. The website also provides information on the science behind immunization, one of the oldest and most well-researched branches of modern medical practice.
In the “Hot Topics” section of the website, parents find information on many common vaccine concerns, ranging from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and autism to concerns over the use of aluminum in vaccines. For instance, the Vaccine Education Center describes for what purpose aluminum is used in vaccines, how much is used (a fraction of what is ingested through the diet), and the kinds of studies that have been conducted on the effects of aluminum on the body.
Another topic, natural immunity versus vaccination, also receives detailed attention. Some vaccines, such as the human papillomavirus (HPV) and tetanus vaccines, produce better immunity than contraction of the diseases they combat. In other cases, vaccines provide a somewhat weaker immunity but at a much lower cost. For instance, hepatitis B can cause liver cancer, and measles can be fatal. The vaccines for these diseases, on the other hand, have few or no side effects.
To learn more about vaccines, or to receive educational materials, visit vaccine.chop.edu.
About the Author: Dr. Paul Offit, a renowned and award-winning expert in vaccinology and pediatric diseases, has published research in more than 100 respected medical journals.
As opposed to antibiotics or other drugs, vaccines do not treat a disease directly. Instead, vaccines cause an individual’s immune system to develop antibodies that can prevent the proliferation of a disease. Vaccination has played an important role in the history of medicine, and thanks to vaccination programs several debilitating diseases have been eradicated or made exceedingly rare.
Although we think of vaccination as a relatively new development, the concept existed in Asia as early as 200 B.C. Until the advent of modern vaccines, it was common practice in India and China to vaccinate against smallpox using scabs taken from infected individuals. By exposing healthy people to low amounts of the smallpox virus, some were able to develop immunity to the disease, though others contracted smallpox and died.
The process of inoculation came to Europe in the 18th century via Turkey. English nobles eventually brought the techniques to Western Europe, and they became widespread by the end of the century.
English scientist Edward Jenner conducted pioneering work in immunology in the late 18th century, which led to the first smallpox vaccine. Previously, it had been suspected that exposure to the bovine version of smallpox (cowpox) caused immunity to the human strain, as milkmaids tended not to contract smallpox. Jenner tested this hypothesis by using pus from cowpox blisters to vaccinate a boy, and then exposing the boy to smallpox. The boy proved immune to smallpox, and public vaccination campaigns arose quickly thereafter.
The next major development in vaccination came when French scientist Louis Pasteur developed a technique for inducing immunity to a disease without the use of a live virus. After this, research into vaccines and vaccination advanced quickly, with many new vaccines developed over the past 150 years. Vaccination campaigns were launched to eradicate certain diseases, and an effort led by the World Health Organization wiped out smallpox in 1977.
To learn more about the history of vaccines, view this animated depiction of Edward Jenner’s discovery:
Early in Dr. Paul A. Offit’s new book, “Autism’s False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure,” he describes a threatening letter he received from a man in Seattle.
