Innovation in Medicine

Vaccination

When a disease has broken out, a treatment becomes necessary. How good it would be if it could be prevented altogether. The scientists have discovered a method to prevent certain diseases. This method is called vaccination, in which a medicine, called vaccine, is administered before the onset of a disease. Dr. Edward Jenner

It was Dr. Edward Jenner who in 1796 first discovered a vaccine for smallpox. How he found it has an interesting story behind it. During the course of his practice, Dr. Jenner observed that all people, except the milkmaids, in the area contacted smallpox. These milkmaids rather suffered from cowpox, a mild form of smallpox. He thought over this and concluded that those who suffered from cowpox did not catch smallpox.

He decided to undertake a dangerous experiment. He took water from a cowpox blister and injected it into a healthy boy, named Phipp. As a result, this boy suffered from cowpox for a few days and recovered. After this, Dr. Jenner injected Phipp with the fluid from a smallpox blister. To his relief and surprise, Phipp never contacted smallpox. This proved his theory that if a person were vaccinated with cowpox water, he would not suffer from smallpox. This medicine was called vaccine for smallpox. It helped to eradicate smallpox completely.

Vaccines are now widely used for prevention of different diseases, like polio, typhoid, cholera, mumps, tuberculosis etc. You must have seen medical workers visiting schools and neighbourhoods to administer polio drops to all children below five years of age. This vaccine is administered to prevent the occurrence of polio.

Pasteurization
Have you heard of packaged milk sold by companies like Amul, Mother Dairy, and Parag? They sell pasteurized milk, which means the germs in the milk have been killed by heating it. This process, called pasteurization, was developed by Louis Pasteur, a French chemist. Germs can cause many diseases, so by killing them, we can prevent illnesses. You can also pasteurize milk at home by boiling it for at least 20 minutes. Other methods can also be used to kill germs.