VACCINATION

 IMMUNIZATION AND VACCINATION

Immunization and Vaccination : Methods of prevention and treatment that have been introduced to control microbial diseases include immunization (e.g. vaccination), antisepsis (procedures to eliminate or reduce the possibility of infection), chemotherapy and public health measures (e.g. water purification, sewage disposal, and food preservation).

Pasteur made many discoveries concerning the cause and prevention of infectious diseases. In 1880's he isolated the bacterium responsible for chicken cholera. He grew it in a pure culture: To prove that he really had isolated the bacterium responsible for this disease Pasteur made use of the fundamental techniques devised by Koch. He arranged experiments for a public demonstration in which he repeated an experiment that had been successful in many previous trials in his laboratory.
Pasteur next applied this principle of inoculation with attenuated cultures to the prevention of anthrax, and again it worked. He called the attenuated cultures of bacterial vaccine (a term derived from the Latin Vacca, "cow") and immunization with attenuated cultures of bacteria, vaccination.

Pasteur honoured Edward Jenner 

Pasteur honoured Edward Jenner (1749-1823), who had successfully vaccinated a boy against small pox in 1796. Jenner had learned that milkmaids who contracted cowpox from the cows, they milked, never subsequently contracted the much more virulent small pox. Accordingly he tested this hypothesis by inoculating young James Phipps first with cowpox causing material and later with small pox ausing material.

The boy did not get small pox.