Vaccines have changed the world

CHILLICOTHE – Many of you reading this have probably never heard of infantile paralysis. Even by its more common name, polio, it’s not really familiar to most of us.

There’s a reason for that.

Like many childhood diseases that were once common in the U.S., the development of a vaccine has virtually eliminated it as a parental concern. Polio, called infantile paralysis for decades because it often paralyzed children it infected, was wiped out in the U.S. by 1979.

Polio was a feared and perilous disease. As recently as 1952, there were 57,628 cases in the U.S., which led to 21,000 people being paralyzed. Fortunately, safe and effective vaccines were created and perfected by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, eliminating polio as a common and a feared disease in the U.S.

Today is World Polio Day. I recently attended a meeting of the Chillicothe Rotary Club, which has made the worldwide eradication of polio one of its funding priorities. Active cases of polio exist in just a few countries; we’re close to wiping it out.

But polio really isn’t the point of this column. The point I’m trying to make is how important and effective vaccines are.

Less than a century ago, Ross County Health District records show that every year, hundreds of children in Chillicothe and Ross County suffered from, and fell victim to, diseases such as polio, small pox, diphtheria, typhoid, mumps and measles, just to name a few.

Mothers and fathers had no way to protect their children from these dangerous viruses and bacteria. I often wonder: If they would have had access to the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) or the DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) vaccines, would they have allowed their children to be vaccinated?

I would think the answer is yes.

It’s easy for parents today to think their children don’t need to be vaccinated. The reason they can think that is because the vaccines they reject and fear have pushed back those once-common diseases. If it wasn’t for the vaccines, children would be sick, parents would miss work, hospitals and doctors would be even busier than they are, and there would be children dying.

As parents, we can question vaccine safety. That’s our right, and it’s a good thing. But in the end, the reason a parent can choose not to have their child vaccinated is because the rest of us are vaccinating our children.

A vaccine wiped out smallpox across the globe. A vaccine eliminated polio in the U.S. And the work of groups such as the Rotary Club will eventually help to eliminate polio in every country on Earth.

Vaccines save lives. That is a fact. Before we decide that they’re dangerous and that our children don’t need them, we should carefully consider the consequences of such actions.

And in this instance, history is definitely our best teacher.

Timothy Angel is Ross County’s health commissioner.