As many are aware, one of the greatest advancements in modern medicine occurred when mankind discovered and developed penicillin. This wonder drug would lead man out of the medicinal Stone Age and heading towards a golden era of medical treatment. This is all thanks to Alexander Fleming, who discovered the antibacterial agents in penicillin. Though he discovered this property, its use by people on a mass scale took a lot longer to come around, as they needed to develop better methods of purification and production. Once this happened however, with the aid of American and British government, many pharmaceutical companies had penicillin readily available for anybody who needed it.
Another important stride in the fight against pathogens and disease came when we developed the vaccine. The earlies progress being made towards developing a vaccine came from academic and government funded grant programs and research that was directed mostly towards identifying what pathogens caused what contagious diseases. Eventually this led to a more thorough understanding of each individual disease, and helped to create the base concept for vaccinations, which just use a weakened form of a disease in order to adapt our bodies to combat it. In 1885, Pierre Pl Emile Roux and his companion Louis Pasteur would create the first rabies vaccine. A bit later many other vaccines would be developed in order to combat and prevent disease. This would cause a kind of chain reaction of vaccines to be developed, putting into check plagues like mumps, chickenpox, rubella, measles, and much more out of commission for good.
The reason that the development of vaccinations were so important for medicine is because they represented a way not just to combat and treat a disease, but to prevent it entirely. The idea that we could protect ourselves against a disease before ever even contracting it was a novel one at the time. Vaccines are now something that we take for granted, as it is standardized for us to be given shots that protect us from a wide variety of diseases that scarcely still even exist today. Vaccines are so powerful that they have even caused some diseases, such as smallpox, to become extinct entirely.
Anthony Harrelson is the CEO of White Oaks Industry Inc., a company developing ways to combat HIV and Ebola.
Another important stride in the fight against pathogens and disease came when we developed the vaccine. The earlies progress being made towards developing a vaccine came from academic and government funded grant programs and research that was directed mostly towards identifying what pathogens caused what contagious diseases. Eventually this led to a more thorough understanding of each individual disease, and helped to create the base concept for vaccinations, which just use a weakened form of a disease in order to adapt our bodies to combat it. In 1885, Pierre Pl Emile Roux and his companion Louis Pasteur would create the first rabies vaccine. A bit later many other vaccines would be developed in order to combat and prevent disease. This would cause a kind of chain reaction of vaccines to be developed, putting into check plagues like mumps, chickenpox, rubella, measles, and much more out of commission for good.
The reason that the development of vaccinations were so important for medicine is because they represented a way not just to combat and treat a disease, but to prevent it entirely. The idea that we could protect ourselves against a disease before ever even contracting it was a novel one at the time. Vaccines are now something that we take for granted, as it is standardized for us to be given shots that protect us from a wide variety of diseases that scarcely still even exist today. Vaccines are so powerful that they have even caused some diseases, such as smallpox, to become extinct entirely.
Anthony Harrelson is the CEO of White Oaks Industry Inc., a company developing ways to combat HIV and Ebola.
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