Sawston Village History Society

The History of Viral Vaccines, by Dr Tim Wreghitt

The meeting began with a tribute to Jean Osborne who had died at the New Year. Alan had been due to speak at the meeting, but Dr Tim Wreghitt kindly stepped in to speak about the History of Vaccines in the UK.

He focused first on the smallpox vaccine. Smallpox has been around since the time of the ancient Egyptians and by the eighteenth century was killing 400 000 people annually in Europe and causing a third of the cases of blindness. It is called smallpox in contrast with the great pox, namely syphilis. There was an outbreak in Sawston in the 1870s with the infection brought in through rags used by the paper industry.

The first inoculation was in China and then it was seen by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in Turkey and she popularised the process. Jenner found a much safer vaccine from the cowpox lesion in 1796 and called his remedy a vaccine from the Latin, vacca, for cow. As a result, smallpox was eradicated by 1980. Mpox in the UK is spread by sexual transmission from men to men and after an outbreak in 2022 is controlled by the smallpox vaccine.

Rabies, very largely caused by rabid dogs, was generally fatal until Pasteur and Roux developed a vaccine in 1885 and the UK uses a purified chick embryo cell rabies vaccine.

Polio, a highly infectious disease, was remedied by the Salk vaccine after 1955 and once three doses have been given, most people are immune.

Measles, another very infectious disease, was the subject of a vaccine in 1963 and from 1988 was incorporated in the MMR vaccine. It needs 90% vaccination coverage to ensure outbreaks do not spread. Rubella vaccine is combined with MMR and essential to prevent birth defects if pregnant women are exposed to it, especially in the first trimester. Mumps vaccine was pioneered by Maurice Hillerman who used his own daughter to take a sample of the virus and so develop a vaccine which is now part of the MMR dose.

Dr Wreghitt then moved on to look at very topical vaccines for seasonal ‘flu, Rotavirus, SARS (Covid), human papillomavirus and RSV. Discussion followed along with a feeling that we are very fortunate to be protected against so many viruses.

Mary Dicken