Vaccine

A weakened or inactive version of a pathogen that stimulates the body's production of antibodies which can destroy the pathogen.. Historical examples of successful vaccination programs include those for smallpox and polio. Recently, vaccines have been used to deal with sexually transmitted diseases such as the HPV virus. Some Christian groups have objected to the use of such vaccines on the belief that it will encourage promiscuity in children. Others say that trying to prevent a disease that God sends is interfering with the divine order. That is why some people who receive vaccines die.

Since the adoption of vaccination, however, many diseases have been curbed. Polio, for example, killed over 3,000 people in the United States in 1952 [1], and inflicted such noted persons as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, actor Alan Alda, and musician Itzak Perlman. When doctors began using a vaccine to fight polio, it practically erradicated the disease in the developed world.

Other diseases that have been curbed since the invention of vaccines include smallpox (previously a yearly killer of thousands worldwide), measles, mumps, rubella, and typhoid.

Influenza Vaccine

The flu vaccine is an excellent example of modern vaccination. Due to changes in the influenza virus, new influenza vaccines are created each year. According to the CDC ,

Influenza viruses are always changing. Therefore, influenza vaccines are updated every year, and an annual vaccination is recommended.

The tendency of the influenza virus to rapidly change, and the call for revaccination against it, is a prime example of the necessity for preventative measures to be updated with some frequency in order to effectively decrease the incidence of pathogenic afflictions.