10 centrespread centrespread 11 AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 05, 2020 AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 05, 2020

HILLEMAN & HIS 40 VACCINES PREDICTED A PANDEMIC: In 1957, when Hilleman heard a flu had hit Hong Kong, he asked them to ship a sample WHEN: Latter Half of 20th Century of the virus and started developing a vaccine. When the WHERE: US flu spread across America, it killed 70,000 people. But WHO: Maurice Hilleman scientists said, without Hilleman’s vaccine, the death toll would have been 1 million. WHAT: Over 40 vaccines AGAINST: Measles, mumps, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, VAX POPULI chickenpox, meningitis, pneumonia, among others The world, disrupted by the novel coronavirus, is anxiously waiting for a vaccine for Covid-19. Russia says its vaccine, Sputnik-V, is ready for use. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation has declared that Africa is free of wild polio, thanks to billions of oral vaccines given to children in the region since 1996. Here’s a look at the some of the fascinating stories behind vaccines: :: Shelley Singh

LOOKING FOR IMMUNITY Even before modern vaccination began in late 18th Dr Hilleman with his research team as they studied the flu virus in a lab at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Maryland, 1957 century, people have been looking for immunity THE WORD MUMPS & DAUGHTERS: In 1967, Hilleman developed the mumps The Effect: By the end vaccine. He had taken swabs of his daughter Jeryl Lynn when she of 2019, 85% of children had In India: In Bengal, where smallpox was believed to VACCINE have been caused by goddess Sitala, inoculation was had came down with the disease. He tried the experimental vaccine received one dose of In China: Variolation was practised performed with songs and prayers. But inoculation ORIGINATES on another daughter — one-year-old Kirsten. measles-containing vaccine by to immunise people against the deadly with live smallpox virus was risky. That changed FROM theirt second birthday. smallpox. This meant having smallpox with Edward Jenner. “VACCA”, LATIN pustules smeared into the wounds of healthy people, or inhaling powdered scabs.bs. JENNER’SJ JAB FOR COW WHEN:W 1796 FIGHTFIGHT AAGAINST POLIO WWHERE: England WHEN: 1950s WWHO: Edward Jenner WHERE: US AGAINST: Smallpox WHO:WHO: JonasJ Salk & Albert Sabin How: He came across a dairy maid called Sarah Nelmes who had cowpox. On May 14, he made two scratches on the AGAINST: Polio arms of 8-year-old James Phipps and injected into them HOW: On March 26, 26 1953, 19553 DrD Jonas Salk announced the fluid from the lesion on Nelmes’s hand. Six weeks later, on radio that he has successfully tested a vaccine the boy was exposed to smallpox, but did not develop an against poliomyelitis, the virus that causes the infection. Jenner is called the father of modern vaccination. crippling disease of polio In India: Three-year-old The Effect: Mass smallpox Anna Dusthall was the first to be immunisation THENTHEN CCAME ORAL V: While vaccinated, in Bombay, on culminated in its global SalkSalk injectedinj “inactivated” Illustration of Jenner performing the first June 14, 1802 eradication in 1979 vaccination on James Phipps on May 14, 1796 virus oro particles of killed virus,virus,, DrD Albert Sabin was Illustration of Pasteur experimentingexppe with live experimenting on a rabbit oral vaccines. America was Illustration of reluctant to try the latter, so Parisian physician Jacques-Joseph Sabin sent strains to a virol- Grancher injecting ogists couple in the USSR — Meister. Since Pasteur was not a Mikhail Chumakov and physician, he only Marina Voroshilova. They supervised the vaccination tested it on their three sons and several nieces and nephews, says a report in DOGGED PASTEUR The New York Times. “The United States began oral WHEN: 1885 polio vaccinations in 1961 WHERE: France after it was proved safe in Russian scientists visiting the US watch Jonas Salk administer a shot of his WHO: Louis Pasteur anti-polio vaccine to Paul Anolik, 9, in Pittsburgh. The Russians are (from left) the Soviet Union.” AGAINST: Rabies Anatol Smordintsey, Marina Voroshilova, Mikhail Chumakov and Lev I Lukin HOW: He developed the vaccine by growing the virus in EVERY YEAR, rabbits and testing it on 50 dogs before using it on humans. OVER 29 MILLION VACCINE IN MORE THAN 1 BILLION CHILDREN HAVE THE GLOBAL VACCINES MARKET IS In 1885, he tested it on 9-year-old Joseph Meister who had PEOPLE WORLDWIDE BEEN VACCINATED OVER THE LAST PROJECTED TO REACH $58.4 BILLION BY 2024 been mauled by a rabid dog. The boy was first inoculated RECEIVE A POST-BITE NUMBERS DECADE, ACCORDING TO WHO FROM $41.7 BILLION IN 2019 with a suspension of 15-day-old desiccated spinal cord of an VACCINATION infected rabbit. He was given 12 more inoculations in 10 days, each AGAINST RABIES Sources: NYT; immune.org.nz; weforum.org; history of vaccines.org, marketsandmarkets.com, more potent than the earlier one. The boy went home, healthy. When Fractured States by Sanjoy Bhattacharya and Others, Passage through India by Michael he grew up, he became a security guard at Institut Pasteur. PICTURES: GETTYIMAGES Bennett, Vaccines: A Biography by Andrew W. Artenstein, merck.com, Smithsonianmag.com, history.com