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Rise of the Microbial World: An Economic Point of View
Published in Jyoti Ranjan Rout, Rout George Kerry, Abinash Dutta, Biotechnological Advances for Microbiology, Molecular Biology, and Nanotechnology, 2022
Microbes are extensively studied for vaccine production. Vaccines are introduced in the body as suspensions of an avirulent form of a pathogen that can be live-attenuated or used as toxoids for inducing a specific and adaptive immune response in the host against a number of diseases. When the vaccine carrying an epitope similar to that of the antigen present on the surface of the disease-causing microbe enters the body, it triggers the host immune response by the generation of antigen-specific antibodies. Subsequently, upon exposure to the disease-causing microbe, the immune system identifies the antigen and responds rapidly to it by producing the same antibodies made against the vaccine and thereby preventing the development of the disease (Lee et al., 2012). The first vaccine discovery dates back to 1796 by British physician Edward Jenner who used cowpox virus, vaccinia like lesions on a milkmaid’s hand to prevent infection against the smallpox virus (Riedel, 2005). Further research resulted in the discovery of a series of vaccines against mumps, measles, plague, rabies, polio, typhoid fever, cholera, tetanus, tuberculosis, and others.
Biological Terrorist Agents
Published in Robert A. Burke, Counter-Terrorism for Emergency Responders, 2017
Two laboratories in the world still hold the last-known stocks of variola virus: the CDC in Atlanta and VECTOR in Novizbersk, Russia. Clandestine stocks could exist in other parts of the world but are as yet unknown. If they do exist, smallpox could come into the hands of terrorists and be used as a biological weapon. The WHO's governing body recommended the total destruction of the remaining stockpiles by 1999. Unfortunately, that did not happen. An effective vaccination is available for smallpox and has been used for years for the general population. Since it is primarily a children's disease, vaccinations were given during early childhood and were effective for about 10 years. Vaccination of civilians in the United States was discontinued in the early 1980s, although some military forces vaccinated until 1989 may still retain some immunity. Children, who are no longer vaccinated, would be at great risk from exposure to smallpox. The Japanese government considered using smallpox as a biological weapon during World War II, and the virus has been considered a threat to U.S. military forces for many years. Monkeypox and cowpox are closely related to variola and might be genetically manipulated to produce a smallpox-like virus.
Scope and History of Microbioiogy
Published in Maria Csuros, Csaba Csuros, Klara Ver, Microbiological Examination of Water and Wastewater, 2018
Maria Csuros, Csaba Csuros, Klara Ver
The process was called vaccination from the Latin word vacca for cow and the vaccination of a child against smallpox is shown in Figure 1.7. The protection from disease provided by vaccination is called immunity. We now know that cowpox and smallpox are caused by viruses. Years later, around 1880, Pasteur discovered why vaccinations work. He discovered that microorganisms with decreased virulence still retained the ability to induce immunity against subsequent infections by virulent counterparts. Pasteur called the cultures of the avirulent microorganisms used for preventive inoculation a vaccine.
Bioethics and Environmental Ethics: The Story of the Human Body as a Natural Ecosystem
Published in The New Bioethics, 2020
Zoe-Athena Papalois, Kyriaki-Barbara Papalois
In the 1700s, Edward Jenner noted that milkmaids who contracted cowpox had a reduced incidence of contracting deadly smallpox (Stewart and Devlin 2006). After the introduction of inoculation, vaccination flourished, with smallpox being declared an eradicated disease by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980 (Weiss and Esparza 2015). After Jenner’s discovery, many other vaccines against devastating diseases followed, which routinely save millions of lives today.