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The two public health interventions that have had the greatest impact on the world's health clean water and vaccines. Thanks to such pioneers as Jenner and Pasteur, a handful of vaccines prevent illness or death for millions of individuals every year. But there is still a long way to go. Immunization, the most cost-effective public health intervention, continues to be uncer-used.. It is profoundly tragic that almost two million children still die each year from diseases for which are available at low cost . And over 90 000 fall victim to paralytic polio, which could also have been prevented by immunization. Indeed, many years elapsed between the invention of current vaccines and their widespread use in immunization programmes. The reasons for these delays are many and complex. If history is to serve any useful purpose, it should help us to find ways to avoid such delays in future.
The closing years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century were marked by the achievements of great vaccine scientists such as Pasteur. Since the introduction of vaccinia by Jenner 200 years ago ("vaccination" in its true sense), nine major diseases of man have been controlled to a greater or lesser extent through the use of vaccines. Several other vaccines have been used in individuals at risk from disease of such as rabies and plague, but have not been systematically applied on a global scale. While BCG has been widely administered to newborns, thus successfully preventing complications such as meningitis and miliary tuberculosis, administration of the vaccine has not resulted in control of the disease. |
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