Polio Vaccine Research Paper

What do vaccines protect against? Vaccinations have reduced the spread of many diseases; including, but not limited to hepatitis, mumps, rubella, influenza, polio, and eradicated smallpox. As narrated in the RX for Survival: Disease Warriors, a Global Health Challenge video (2005) produced by Beckham, vaccines are “the ammunition for the war” against diseases. One example given was the polio vaccine, which has decreased the numbers of cases from the thousands to now hundreds (Beckham, M. 2005).
How do they work?
Normally the human body neutralizes the effects of outside invaders with antibodies or lymphocytes that prevent a person from getting sick. The problem is that our immune system can take a few days to a week before triggering an immune response, and when a person encounters a serious infectious disease, it can be life threatening (How vaccines work, 2011).
The eradication of smallpox was possible, mostly because small pox cannot be transmitted by animals or insects. The only carriers of this disease are humans. On the other hand, there have been many efforts to eradicate polio. Although the numbers of children infected with this deforming disease have reduced drastically, it has proven extremely difficult to eliminate, due to it’s localize outbreak challenges such as water contamination and its rapid ability to spread (Beckham, M. 2005). Eradicating a disease takes time, planning, and having the right resources. Other times a person’s religious belief or misconception of the vaccines can trump those efforts, as we saw in India, where parents refused to vaccinate their children due to the idea that the only one that could keep their children safe from Polio is Allah (Beckham, M. 2005). There are others who have an unfounded misconception that vaccines do more harm than good. Although challenging, the eradication of diseases is possible. The only question is when and how those goals would be