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Before the first successful vaccine was developed in 1796, Americans had little protection against deadly infectious diseases like smallpox, measles and diphtheria.
Over the next 250 years, vaccines helped eliminate or dramatically reduce many vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, preventing millions of illnesses, infections and deaths.
“There is a reason that vaccines are widely considered to be the greatest public health tool after sanitation,” Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel told Fox News Digital.
“They are designed to ‘fool’ the immune system into thinking it has seen a disease, creating an ‘immune memory’ to provoke an immune response to the pathogen when it actually does appear.”
“True vaccines have side effects, and there is the risk of vaccine injury — but overall, the benefit to the individual and society vastly outweighs any harm,” Siegel added.
As the US marks its 250th anniversary, the following vaccines stand out among the most significant medical achievements in the country’s history.
Smallpox, a highly contagious viral disease caused by the variola virus, was one of the world’s deadliest diseases before vaccination, killing about 30% of those infected, according to CDC data.
The infectious disease had no cure and spread through close person-to-person contact, causing fever, fatigue and a distinctive rash that led to pus-filled blisters. Survivors were often left with permanent scarring or blindness.
The first successful vaccine, developed by English physician Edward Jenner in 1796, eventually transformed public health in the United States.
Jenner’s smallpox vaccine ultimately led to the global eradication of smallpox, according to the World Health Organization. The vaccine is no longer given routinely to the public and is mainly used for select military, laboratory and emergency-response needs.
The first successful vaccine, developed by English physician Edward Jenner in 1796, eventually transformed public health in the United States.
“The first vaccine against smallpox eradicated a disease that killed 5-10% of all humans who had ever lived for almost all of human history,” Dr. Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, a San Francisco biotechnology company, told Fox News Digital. “Then the drumbeat began of relentless progress right at the eve of the 20th century.”
A viral disease that attacks the brain and nervous system, rabies spreads through the saliva of infected mammals, most commonly through the bites of dogs, bats, raccoons, skunks and foxes.
Once symptoms begin, rabies is almost always fatal, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Although there is no cure, vaccination immediately after exposure can prevent the disease. It can also be given before exposure for people at high risk.
Researcher Louis Pasteur created the first rabies vaccine in 1885, according to The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Today, prompt vaccination after exposure remains the standard way to prevent an otherwise almost universally fatal disease.
Diphtheria is a bacterial infection that can cause a thick coating in the throat. It was fatal for some, and survivors could face serious complications, including heart damage, paralysis and breathing problems, according to the CDC.
Before the vaccine’s introduction in the 1920s, diphtheria was one of the leading causes of illness and death among youth in the US. During that decade, there were 100,000 to 200,000 cases and 13,000 to 15,000 deaths recorded each year, mostly affecting children.