Researchers embarked on a massive project to capture records of incidences of infectious diseases from 1888 to 2011.
A New England Medical Journal article titled Contagious Diseases in the United States from 1888 to the present, explains how scientists analysed almost 88-million individual disease records covering more than 100 years. The data were used to track how the incidence of diseases peaked and waned.
University of KwaZulu-Natal pharmacist Andy Gray said the study was significant because of the huge amount of data it collated and its confirmation that vaccines had had an incredible effect on disease prevention.
The scientists were able to calculate the effectiveness of a vaccine by comparing the incidence of a disease before the vaccine against it was widely used and afterwards.
They estimated that 35-million cases of measles in the US were prevented by a vaccine introduced there in 1963.
In the US, 26-million cases of childhood diseases such as polio, measles and whooping cough have been prevented in the past 10 years alone, according to the study.
But the authors noted that, when infectious diseases were virtually wiped out by vaccines, parents were unaware of the serious implications they had for their children.
Instead, their focus shifted to concern about the safety of vaccination and they became less likely to vaccinate their children. This led to the return of outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough.
The scientists called for doctors to explain to parents the importance of vaccination, even when the disease was in retreat.
The National Institute of Communicable Diseases' Professor Lucille Blumberg said: "In 2009, there was low measles vaccination coverage in some groups in South Africa because some populations didn't think measles was risky. This led to a measles outbreak in 2009.
"South Africa has not had a case of polio since 1989 but there has been an outbreak recently in Syria. We will have the return of polio if we don't keep vaccination rates high."
The Stop Stockouts report released last week by a coalition of NGOs and activists revealed that 300 clinics across South Africa had periodically reported running out of vaccines.
Source: The Times
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