Health Curriculum: Unit 6--Main text: Grades 7-11

Fighting Disease:
Health At The End Of The Millennium
Another Wired Curriculum from The United Nations CyberSchoolBus

	Introduction
	How They Work
	How They Spread
	Poverty and Disease
	Prevention
	Immunization

Unit 6
Immunization

MAIN TEXT
(GRADES 7-11)

Age of Vaccination

Present vs. Future

We are on the threshold of major breakthroughs in immunization. Through the use of molecular biology and genetic engineering techniques, existing vaccines will be improved and others developed to protect children from diseases for which previously there had been no vaccine. Since 1980, 14 new or improved vaccines have been developed. The method of administering vaccines will also be simplified with one dose immunizations and the possibility of building booster shots into the original dose.

Upgrading immunization programs, however, is costly. The new technologies will be prohibitively expensive for many countries mainly because of the research and development costs and intellectual property rights. These vaccines may be more widely available in the future, but until then the greatest worldwide impact will continue to come from programs and strategies already in place - those that have had their trials and were designed to be cost-effective and practical in conditions of poverty.

The discovery of the first vaccine in the United Kingdom 200 years ago ushered in new possibilities for the control of infectious diseases. First it was only smallpox, but soon vaccines against other diseases were discovered. The implications were enormous: infectious diseases could be warded off. But how could these discoveries begin to benefit the world? What strategies could be used? What mechanisms needed to be in place? Who would pay for them?

It would take until the second half of the twentieth century for the global impact of the discovery to be felt. Today, vaccines against six deadly childhood diseases are widely available around the world - but many in the poorest countries still do not receive even the basic vaccines.

The six basic vaccine-preventable diseases:
diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio, tuberculosis, measles.

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