Vaccine is a type of substance (virus or bacteria) that is introduced into the body of a person from an animal to create immunity to a certain disease or to cure an infection that has already developed.
The immunity created through the vaccine is based on the body's ability to react to infectious agents by producing antibodies that fight these agents.
When a person or animal is vaccinated against a certain disease, they have immunity to that disease.
The first vaccine was discovered in 1978 by English physician Edward Jenner in his observations on the influence of cowpox on people who milked infected animals. In fact, the word “vaccine” derives from the Latin term “vaccinate”, which means “of the cow”.
Jenner observed that the infectious agent of cowpox, when coming into contact with the human organism, provoked its immunity to this disease.
Other important vaccines were discovered next: against rabies (developed by Pasteur in 1885), against polio (paralysis childhood), cholera, yellow fever, hepatitis, measles, typhus, tuberculosis, flu, and also against diphtheria, whooping cough and rubella (vaccine triple).
Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent many vaccine-preventable diseases. The vaccination campaigns promoted by the Ministry of Health are aimed at controlling (or even eradicating) diseases in the Brazilian territory.
