General Article From cholera to COVID: a brief history of vaccines

Topic Selected: Global Health Book Volume: 419

The idea of vaccinating people against deadly disease dates back centuries.

Today, vaccines save four million lives every year.

And the COVID-19 pandemic saw the most rapid vaccine development ever.

To mark World Immunization Week, we look back at the history of vaccines.

Every minute, eight children’s lives are saved by vaccines, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Previously fatal diseases like smallpox and polio have been virtually eliminated around the world. But how did th...

Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?

Sign up now for a no obligation FREE TRIAL and view the entire collection