Fascinating graphics reveal how some of the most deadly and infectious diseases in human history were completely eliminated after vaccines were developed to combat them.
Smallpox, measles, and poliomyelitis together have killed hundreds of millions of people throughout human history, leaving many more with lifelong disfigurements or disabilities.
But with the help of vaccines, smallpox has been eradicated worldwide, polio cases have been reduced by 99% and measles infections have also been drastically reduced.
The graphics were published by Max Roser, a researcher at Oxford University and founder of the website Our World in Data, as coronavirus vaccines begin to roll out, raising hopes that life may return soon. to normal.
Smallpox is believed to have been one of the deadliest diseases in the world, killing nearly half a million people until Edward Jenner invented the first vaccine in 1796. Now, the disease has been eradicated (in the image, data showing how deaths in London fell due to the virus after the development of a vaccine)
Oxford University, together with pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, has developed one of the world’s first coronavirus vaccines that has been shown to be up to 90% effective in end-stage trials and is in the process of being approved for its use. public use.
Roser wrote, “The infectious diseases that once disfigured, hurt, paralyzed, and murdered many of our ancestors have disappeared are far from our lives and memories.
“Today, when we face the COVID-19 pandemic, it is the first time many of us have experienced for an infectious disease what our ancestors experienced for a whole host of them.
“Just as they were unprotected from the diseases discussed above, we are now facing a pathogen from which we have no treatment or from which we have no protection.
“And now, then, our best hope is science … To end the suffering that COVID-19 causes, our best hope is a vaccine against the virus.”
As an example, Roser used data on three of the most deadly and infectious diseases for which vaccines have been developed: smallpox, polio, and measles.
Smallpox is believed to have been one of the deadliest diseases in human history, killing more than a billion people from the time of the ancient Egyptians until 1978.
Nearly a third of those who contracted the disease died because of it, while survivors could be left with disfiguring scars that lasted the rest of their lives.
This motivated English doctor Edward Jenner to develop the world’s first vaccine, using the related but milder smallpox disease to protect people from smallpox.
Major outbreaks of polio in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century left many paralyzed and killed others, until a vaccine developed in 1955 caused a huge drop in serious cases, with the virus eliminated in America in 1979.
Measles was a highly infectious disease believed to have infected virtually every child under the age of 15 in the U.S. between 1953 and 1963, when the first vaccine was developed and caused infection rates to drop dramatically.
Data show that smallpox deaths in London were gradually reduced as the vaccine was administered from 1796 onwards and, except for a major outbreak in the 1870s, fell steadily over the following decades.
The disease was declared eradicated from the United Kingdom in 1930 and in 1980 became the first disease eradicated worldwide by vaccination.
Although progress with the smallpox vaccine was slow, the data show more dramatic results with the polio and measles vaccines, which were administered more quickly.
In the first half of the twentieth century outbreaks of polio were common, especially during the summer months, with most patients being children.
Although most cases of poliomyelitis were mild, severe cases could leave children with partial paralysis or cause death by paralyzing the muscles that control breathing.
The only treatment for those patients was to place it in an “iron lung,” where it may have to remain for weeks, months, or even years.
Paul Alexander, a 74-year-old boy from Texas, contracted polio in 1952, at the age of four, and had to be placed in an iron lung where he still remains today.
In 1955, American Jonas Salk developed a vaccine against the disease that had an immediate impact on the number of cases and deaths from the virus.
Coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out in the UK and US, and the EU is expected to approve its first vaccine before Christmas, giving hope that life will soon return to normal.
In just one year, the number of paralytic infections had nearly halved, according to the data, and by 1979 the virus had been wiped out in the U.S.
Measles is another highly infectious disease that can cause life-threatening symptoms such as pneumonia and brain swelling.
The disease was first described in the ninth century in Paris and during the first decade of data collection in the US (1912 to 1922) killed an average of 6,000 Americans each year.
Between 1953 and 1963, when John Enders developed a vaccine, it is believed that almost every child in the United States was infected with measles at some point before they turned 15 years old.
Although measles cases increased slightly the year after the vaccine was introduced, they fell sharply in the next four years.
The disease was declared eradicated from the U.S. in 2000, but has since resurfaced as vaccine rates have dropped.
Globally, it is believed that now only 70% of children are given the recommended doses of vaccine each year, while cases reach the age of 20 and deaths from disease have increased by 50% in the last four years.
To date, the coronavirus has infected at least 73 million people since it emerged in China late last year and has killed at least 1.6 million.
These figures are believed to be underestimated due to problems with testing, especially during the first wave of infection.
In order to control the virus, governments around the world have submerged their populations in closures that have paralyzed economies and caused a global recession with effects that are likely to be felt over the next few years.
This global impact has pushed scientists to create a vaccine against the disease in less than 12 months, in a process that can typically take years or decades.
In the picture on the left, two boys who had been exposed to the smallpox virus, but only one of whom was vaccinated; and on the right, a room for polio patients treated with iron lungs after the virus left them struggling to breathe
The first vaccine that reported large-scale trial data, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, has been approved for use in the United Kingdom and the United States with mass vaccination programs underway, and it is expected that the EU approves it before Christmas.
Two more vaccines, developed by Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca, are also expected to gain regulatory approval in the coming months.
Safety tests have shown that Pfizer and Modrena vaccines are up to 95 percent effective in preventing serious illness caused by the disease, while the Oxford puncture is effective up to 90 percent with an average of 70 percent. one hundred.
It is still unclear whether these first vaccines will prevent people from catching the disease, but they should help prevent people from dying from it.
Since then, Moderna has presented data suggesting that its vaccine can prevent people from catching the disease, helping to break chains of infection and prevent the disease from infecting those who have not yet been vaccinated.
However, the blows have proven to be controversial and many say they will refuse to take them amid safety concerns, although medical experts and regulators insist they are safe.
In the United States, 39% of people surveyed in November said they would not or probably not get the vaccine, although half of that group said they could change their minds if more data is available. .
Skepticism is also high among European nations, with only a third of people in Sweden, Germany and Italy agreeing “fully” that they would get the vaccine.
Rates are even lower in Russia, Poland, Hungary and France, where only one in five agreed with the statement, a poll showed in September.
When combined with those who are “somewhat in agreement” with the vaccine, rates increase by more than half in all of these countries.