The recent launch of a long-awaited vaccine for COVID-19 brought to mind an image from my first exposure to mass vaccination in 1958. A drummer walked into an agraharam at Manamadurai, a small village in Ramnad district of Tamil Nadu. The drumbeats brought out everyone from either side of the street chock-a-block with houses. In a singsong tone, he announced the need to eradicate smallpox, while his companion began his vaccination work.
I, five years old then, hid behind my aunt. Much as I resisted and kept my eyes tightly closed, I ended up having four vaccination marks, two in each arm. How did that happen? Even my aunt did not know, but she explained the vaccination process — placing a drop from a container on the skin and scratching through it. My two-year-old brother mimicked it on everyone’s arm for the next few days.
Smallpox was a scourge that had been around for more than 1,500 years. Worldwide, it had caused 300 million deaths in the 20th century.
The disease carried a 30% mortality rate and left survivors permanently scarred. Edward Jenner discovered the vaccine in 1798, but the world was declared smallpox-free only two centuries later in May 1980. Smallpox is the only human disease that had been eradicated, and it was achieved through vaccination.
The second disease on the verge of being eradicated is poliomyelitis, commonly known as polio. Polio too has been a scourge for thousands of years and reached epidemic proportions in the early 20th century. By 1950, a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk did reduce the prevalence of the disease in the U.S. In 1985, the Rotary International initiated a drive to end polio globally with the use of Albert Sabin’s oral polio vaccine. On National Immunisation Days, volunteers in bright yellow T-shirts with the Rotary logo of a wheel would ferry containers of vaccine to the immunisation booths. Adhering to the calls made by celebrities to protect children with just two drops, zindagi do boondh ki , parents would line up with their children aged five and below. Brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan’s thumb is a little bit away from his index finger as he proclaims, “We are this close to eliminating polio.” Yes, barring Pakistan and Afghanistan, all other countries have been declared polio-free.
Lifestyle diseases
Improvement in living standards, availability of antibiotics and vaccines could stall epidemics such as cholera and plague caused by bacteria. Globally, deaths due to infections dropped, but affluence led to the emergence of lifestyle diseases.
Diabetes and hypertension have become more prevalent, causing heart attacks, strokes and kidney diseases even in middle age. Heart attack is the number one killer worldwide and had caused nearly nine million deaths in 2019. People with such co-morbidities and the growing geriatric population world over have fared poorly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts warn of more pandemics in future. Any attempt to prevent diseases needs to include efforts to keep nature pristine and us fit. In this context, a message propagated by Rotary India, Ek chammach kum aur chaar kadam aage , meaning one spoon less of salt, oil and sugar in daily meals and walking more, is an apt mantra.
The COVID-19 pandemic caught the world unawares. It exposed many of our weaknesses and challenged us to develop vaccines quickly. Even as I share the Rotary fitness mantra with my family and friends, I look forward to taking the vaccine and contribute to herd immunity. This time, I will get the call for vaccine from an app on my smartphone and not from a village drummer. My 85-year old aunt and I are waiting for our turns.
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