What you don't know about vaccines can hurt you

As physicians, we've all learned in detail about the science behind vaccinations, but I suspect few of us have been taught about the history of vaccinations. Sure, we all know that Dr. Jonas Salk developed the poliovirus vaccine, but I wasn't aware that he inoculated himself, his wife, and his three children with his then experimental vaccine. When our editorial committee decided to focus on vaccinations as our theme for this month's Greene County Medical Society's Journal, I perused the internet for interesting topics. I came across a fascinating website, historyofvaccines.org; this website is a project of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, touted as being the oldest professional medical organization in the United States. I credit the majority of the information in this article to the above website and the rest to the National Institutes of Health (nih.gov) website; I trust that the information is valid and true, based on the agencies behind these websites. Below are some interesting tidbits about vaccine preventable diseases that I found noteworthy to pass on to our readers.