American vaccines that transformed public health, prevented millions of illnesses over 250 years

Before the first successful vaccine was developed in 1796, Americans had little protection against deadly infectious diseases like smallpox, measles and diphtheria.Over the next 250 years, vaccines helped eliminate or dramatically reduce many vaccine-preventable infectious diseases, preventing millions of illnesses, infections and deaths.“There is a reason that vaccines are widely considered to be the greatest public health tool after sanitation,” Fox News senior medical analyst Dr.Marc Siegel told Fox News Digital.“They are designed to ‘fool’ the immune system into thinking it has seen a disease, creating an ‘immune memory’ to provoke an immune response to the pathogen when it actually does appear.”“True vaccines have side effects, and there is the risk of vaccine injury — but overall, the benefit to the individual and society vastly outweighs any harm,” Siegel added.As the US marks its 250th anniversary, the following vaccines stand out among the most significant medical achievements in the country’s history.Smallpox, a highly contagious viral disease caused by the variola virus, was one of the world’s deadliest diseases before vaccination, killing about 30% of those infected, according to CDC data.The infectious disease had no cure and spread through close person-to-person contact, causing fever, fatigue and a distinctive rash that led to pus-filled blisters.

Survivors were often left with permanent scarring or blindness.The first successful vaccine, developed by English physician Edward Jenner in 1796, eventually transformed public health in the United States.Jenner’s smallpox vaccine ultimately led to the global eradication of smallpox, according to the World Health Organization.The vaccine is no longer given routinely to the public and is mainly used for select military, laboratory and emergency-response needs.“The first vaccine against smallpox eradicated a disease that killed 5-10% of all humans who had ever lived for al...