On February 4, 1976, a nineteen-year-old army recruit at Fort Dix died of what the CDC determined was an influenza strain genetically similar to the 1918 H1N1 swine flu virus that caused a worldwide pandemic. Fearing another pandemic, CDC pushed for mass vaccination Then-President Gerald Ford (who facing re-election) figured mass American deaths would be politically unforgivable if nothing was done, agreed and fast-tracked a vaccine.

A few months later the pharmaceutical industry demanded federal indemnification against liability for any adverse reactions before releasing the vaccine. Then, as now, such a move created public suspicion and distrust of both the government and the vaccine. That skepticism was furthered after several reports linked the vaccine to recipients developing Guillain-Barre syndrome,  a rare disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks nerves causing weakness and sometimes paralysis severe enough to require ventilator support.

The pandemic never materialized as that flu strain was far less dangerous than initially thought. But the damage to the idea of vaccines being lifesaving miracles had been done.

That fall I had the dubious honor of being interviewed on camera by one of the local TV stations in Rockford, IL after getting a swine flu shot. When asked why I wasn’t hesitant to get the vaccine, I said something stupid like, “I should know about these things; I’m a medical student!”

But the real reason I got that vaccination and continue to do so was because I grew up during the 1950s and 1960s. Our parents lived through the times of no vaccines and witnessed the devastation. Immunizations were miracles of science and our parents were determined we would have a better (and healthier) life than they did.  

The current anti-vaccine movement started in the 1980s and has only grown since then, thanks to the Internet, anti-science politicians and Andrew Wakefield’s thoroughly discredited claim that vaccines caused autism. Most of those people either didn’t experience or chose to forget what life was like prior to vaccines, which calls for a review of pre-vaccine devastation.

In 1892 Canadian physician Sir William Osler called pneumonia “the old man’s friend” because it often claimed the elderly already suffering from debilitating disease. (Osler died of pneumonia in 1919.) Thirty to 40 percent of people who developed pneumonia died before widespread use of antibiotics. Even now, antibiotic resistance among the more than 90 serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae can make treatment difficult.

A polysaccharide vaccine against 23 streptococcal serotypes, PPSV-23 (Pneumovax ® Merck), was released in 1983. A pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) was released in 2000; it was replaced in 2013 by PCV13 (Prevnar13 ® Pfizer). So now us old people can die of slower, more expensive diseases like Alzheimer’s, chronic congestive heart failure and cancer.

Smallpox, a contagious disease caused by the variola virus, produced fever, vomiting, generalized body aches and a characteristic pustular rash that frequently resulted in terrible scarring. Sometimes smallpox infections left the victim blind or dead. A vaccine became available in 1961 and was given until 1972 when it was declared eradicated in the United States. In 1978 Janet Parker, a 40-year-old photographer, was the last smallpox fatality.  The WHO declared smallpox eradicated in 1980.

All of us who received a smallpox vaccination have a cratered scar on our upper arms. Mine has all but faded but I wore it like a badge of honor.

Polio, caused by the poliovirus, is a disease whose symptoms range from none (75%), through common viral symptoms such as fever, headache, nausea and stomach pain (20%) to progressive, devastating neurological damage (5%). Many victims suffered weakened and deformed limbs or outright paralysis. (President Franklin Roosevelt was 39 when he contracted polio in 1921 and became unable to walk, but he hid it well from the public.) Sometimes the virus affected the ability to breathe, requiring patients to spend a good deal of their lives in an iron lung, long before the invention of modern ventilators.

Our parents were terrified because everyone knew someone who had contracted polio. People blamed cats, dogs, public drinking fountains, swimming pools and beaches for spreading polio before its fecal mode of transmission was identified. One of my high school classmates, born in 1954, contracted polio which weakened one leg. Sixty some years later he still wears a heavy leg brace.

Jonas Salk is remembered for created the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) which was released in 1955. Albert Sabin created an oral polio vaccine (OPV), released in 1961. Kids my age got the OPV on a sugar cube that had been dosed with the vaccine. Currently IPV is the only vaccine available in the US but OPV is still used in other countries.

Diphtheria, a bacterial illness caused by the Corynebacterium diphtheriae, creates a toxin that destroys respiratory tract tissue. The resulting grey “pseudomembrane” makes breathing and swallowing difficult and gives the breath an odor described as a “wet mouse.” The toxin can wreck the heart, kidneys, and nervous system if it circulates in the blood. About 10% of victims died from diphtheria before a vaccine was developed.

Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a contagious bacterial respiratory disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Infection produces a severe hacking cough that can last for 10 weeks, accompanied by a “whoop” sound with inhalation. Severe coughing fits can lead to fractured ribs. It was sometimes fatal in infants prior to a vaccine; it is still common in underdeveloped countries.

Tetanus, once commonly known as “lockjaw,” is caused by the bacterium Clostridium tetani, found mainly in damp soil. (My mother always told me one developed tetanus from stepping on a rusty nail, which never made sense. It was due to bacteria in the soil around old, rusty nails.) It produces a toxin that causes painful muscle contractions (tetany), often affecting jaw and mouth muscles.

DPT, a vaccine for diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus was developed in 1949, combining diphtheria and tetanus toxoids (inactivated forms of toxins) with killed pertussis cells. I got vaccinated when I was five years old and spent a couple of nights in the hospital after developing hives. I never got a tetanus booster after that, but the hives were more likely a reaction to the pertussis component. A newer vaccine, TDaP, which used pertussis antigens rather than killed bacteria (aP = acellular Pertussis) was released in 1981 and replaced DPT in 1997.

Measles is a very contagious viral illness caused by the rubeola virus which has gone by many other names: red measles; English measles; hard measles; seven-, eight- or ten-day measles. Infected people, mostly children, develop cough, fever, runny nose and itchy eyes followed by a generalized flat rash 3-5 days later. While most recover without any problems, measles complications include ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia and encephalitis. (Adults often do poorly with childhood diseases, especially measles.) About 100,000 people around the world, mostly children under 5, die from measles every year. Measles was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000 but there were 1,282 cases in 2019, largely due to people lacking vaccination.

Mumps is a viral illness that causes parotitis (swelling of the salivary glands) but can also affect the breasts, pancreas, meninges (the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord), ovaries and testicles. Mumps used to be a common cause of aseptic (non-bacterial) meningitis and hearing loss in children before widespread vaccination. Death from mumps is rare.

Rubella, also known as German measles or three-day measles, is a viral disease that causes fever, headache, runny nose and a distinctive fine rash that spreads from the face to the trunk and then arms and legs. The infection is usually mild, and most children recover quickly, but complications include pneumonia leading to death, encephalitis causing deafness or intellectual disability, or a ruptured spleen. Up to 70% of women with rubella develop arthritis.

Congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), characterized by cataracts, congenital heart disease, intellectual impairment or hearing deficits, can occur in babies whose mothers contracted rubella during pregnancy. There were 12.5 million cases of rubella in the United States during the 1964-1965 rubella epidemic with a staggering toll.  Women lost 11,000 pregnancies from miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion and 2,100 babies died after birth. Of the 20,000 cases of CRS identified, 11,000 were born deaf, 3,500 were blind and about 1,800 suffered intellectual disabilities.

Varicella (chickenpox), another annoying but potentially dangerous childhood infection, is caused by the varicella zoster virus (VZV). It produces small blisters that eventually turn into scabs. Complications include skin infections from open blisters, pneumonia, encephalitis, bleeding and sepsis. There were over four million infections and around 100 deaths annually before a vaccine was released in 1995. Shingles (postherpetic neuralgia) is a painful re-activation of VZV along nerve paths.

MMR/MMRV: In 1963 inactivated and live attenuated measles vaccines were released in the US.  The inactivated vaccine didn’t offer sufficient protection and was discontinued in 1967. The live attenuated vaccine caused fever and rash in recipients and was withdrawn in 1975. A combined measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) was released in 1971; varicella was added (MMRV) in 2005.

Zostavax, a live, attenuated vaccine to prevent shingles, was released in 2006. Shingrix, a recombinant, adjuvanted zoster vaccine, was released in 2017, replacing Zostavax in November, 2020.

I had chickenpox, because DPT, polio and smallpox were the only available vaccines at the time. When a neighborhood kid developed chickenpox, other mothers would send their kids to a “chickenpox party.” We’d pass around a contaminated drinking glass to contract chickenpox and “get it over with.” Some parents still engage in the practice despite having a vaccine, thinking “natural” immunity is preferable.

I also had all the other childhood viral illnesses – measles, rubella and mumps. When I developed mumps, my mother chastised me for any activity, saying “You’ll be sorry if it goes down on you!” She was talking about mumps orchitis (painful testicular swelling from the mumps virus that can lead to shrunken testicles and, rarely, infertility) but I had no idea what she was talking about and she didn’t bother to explain. That I have three kids indicates no apparent gonadal damage.

MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY
BEFORE AND AFTER
VACCINE DEVELOPMENT

Other communicable diseases and vaccines

Hepatitis A, formerly “infectious hepatitis,” is an acute liver infection caused by the Hepatitis A virus (HAV). It is acquired by ingesting virus passed through feces, usually from contaminated food or water. It causes fever, nausea, abdominal pain, jaundice, and dark urine. Complications are rare but infection can lead to acute kidney failure as well as hemolytic and aplastic anemias. Fulminant hepatitis, which leads to liver tissue destruction, is rare and has a death rate of up to 80%.

A vaccine against HAV was released in 1996 and infection rates declined until 2016. The US has struggled with a Hepatitis A outbreak which began in 2016 and was linked to person-to person contact (drug use and homelessness) rather than contamination. There have been 37,121 cases reported across 35 states with 348 deaths as of December 18, 2020.

Hepatitis B, formerly “serum hepatitis,”is an acute liver infection caused by the Hepatitis B virus (HBV). It is acquired through

• unprotected sex with an infected individual
• sharing drug paraphernalia or personal items
• tattooing with unsterile equipment
• passed from pregnant mother to fetus
• human bites

Signs and symptoms are the same as for HAV; however, about 50% of infected people may have no symptoms. Complications are similar to those of HAV; about 200-300 people die of fulminant hepatitis each year. A vaccine was released in 1986. It is recommended for all newborns and anyone not previously vaccinated.

There are about 800,000 to 1.4 million people in the US with chronic hepatitis with and additional ,5000-8,000 becoming chronically infected every year. Most annual deaths linked to HBV are due to the consequences of chronic infection: cirrhosis (3,000-4,000) and liver cancer (1,000-1500).

Hepatitis C, D and E are forms of viral hepatitis caused by Hepatitis C (HCV), Hepatitis D (HDV)and Hepatitis E (EV) viruses. There are no vaccines for these three viruses. HCV can be treated (the Hep C medication for which its creators incessantly run commercials costs $94,000) but there are none for HDV and HEV. HEV infection usually resolves spontaneously.

Employers often require healthcare workers to provide evidence of immunity to HBV and other communicable diseases prior to employment. I got the HBV vaccine in the early 1990s

Haemophilus Influenza type b (Hib) is a bacterium, not a virus. It primarily infects infants and children under 5 years, and can cause meningitis, pneumonia, bacteremia (bacteria in the blood), and epiglottitis, a potentially life-threatening swelling of the epiglottis. There were about 20,000 cases of Hib and 1,000 deaths annually before a vaccine was released. The polysaccharide vaccine released in 1985 did not work well in children under 2 years and was replaced with conjugate vaccines in 1987.

I recently got my first COVID vaccination; I’m a healthcare worker who still has contact with mostly older people. I expect there will be more adverse reactions reported as there’s a big difference between several thousand people in a vaccine trial and tens of millions of people being vaccinated.

None of us should want to live in a world in which easily preventable diseases with significant morbidity and mortality run rampant because we no longer have sufficient herd immunity.

Featured Image © Can Stock Photo / joloei