Introduction -- 1. Our deadliest foes -- 2. Smallpox, the speckled monster -- 3. The flawed genius of Louis Pasteur -- 4. The end of polio -- 5. Tuberculosis, the great equaliser -- 6. Diphtheria, the scourge of childhood -- 7. The golden age of immunisation -- 8. Vaccines and cancer -- 9. Vaccines and pregnancy -- 10. Vaccines for the elderly -- 11.The tragedies and the frauds -- 12. The modern anti-immunisation movement -- 13. Immunisation and ethics -- 14. Overcoming the iniquity of poverty -- 15. Immunisation into the future -- Conclusion -- Endnotes -- Glossary of terms and abbreviations -- Suggested reading -- Acknowledgments -- Index.
Summary:
In 1919, Spanish flu killed over 50 million people, more than died in both world wars combined. In 1950, an estimated 50 million people caught smallpox worldwide, of whom 10 million died. In 1980, before measles vaccine was widely used, an estimated 2.6 million children died of measles every year. Less than 100 years ago, losing a child to an infection like diphtheria or polio was a dreaded but almost inevitable sorrow faced by all parents, from the richest to the poorest. Today, these killer diseases are almost never seen in industrialised countries, thanks to the development of vaccines. Immunisation has given modern parents peace of mind their ancestors could not imagine. The history of vaccination is rich with trial, error, sabotage and success. It encompasses the tragedy of lives lost, the drama of competition and discovery, the culpability of botched testing, and the triumph of effective, lifelong immunity.
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