Abstract
The modern success story of vaccinations involves a historical chain of events that transformed the discovery that vaccines worked, to administering them to the population. We estimate the number of lives saved and morbidity reduction associated with the discovery of the first human cell strain used for the production of licensed human virus vaccines, known as WI-38. The diseases studied include poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chicken pox), herpes zoster, adenovirus, rabies and Hepatitis A. The number of preventable cases and deaths in the U.S. and across the globe was assessed by holding prevalence rates and disease-specific death rates constant from 1960–2015. Results indicate that the total number of cases of poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, adenovirus, rabies and hepatitis A averted or treated with WI-38 related vaccines was 198 million in the U.S. and 4.5 billion globally (720 million in Africa; 387 million in Latin America and the Caribbean; 2.7 billion in Asia; and 455 million in Europe). The total number of deaths averted from these same diseases was approximately 450,000 in the U.S., and 10.3 million globally (1.6 million in Africa; 886 thousand in Latin America and the Caribbean; 6.2 million in Asia; and 1.0 million in Europe).
Highlights
In late 2014 and early 2015 a measles outbreak occurred in California that began when an unvaccinated 11-year old with an active infection visited a theme park
Prior to vaccinations in the U.S, 20% of those who developed measles, required hospitalization; poliomyelitis caused about 15,000 cases of paralysis every year; about 85% of infants born to mothers infected with rubella during the first trimester had serious birth defects; and the total estimated morbidity count associated with diseases that are vaccine preventable was more than 1.1 million cases every year [4]
The estimated total number of cases of poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, adenovirus, rabies, and hepatitis A averted or treated in the U.S alone due to the introduction of vaccines developed with the WI-38 cell strain, is 198 million (Table 1)
Summary
In late 2014 and early 2015 a measles outbreak occurred in California that began when an unvaccinated 11-year old with an active infection visited a theme park. The disease was subsequently observed in 24 States (not all of which were linked to the California outbreak), with a total of 188 new cases identified in that year [1]. We illustrate how the discovery and use of a single cell strain used to grow most viral vaccines in use today (WI-38 [8] and a later derivative [9]), has already had a powerful impact on human life on an order of magnitude that is unprecedented in the history of public health.. We illustrate how the discovery and use of a single cell strain used to grow most viral vaccines in use today (WI-38 [8] and a later derivative [9]), has already had a powerful impact on human life on an order of magnitude that is unprecedented in the history of public health.2 This direct application of applied demography will. Shed new light on (1) the importance of vaccines in saving lives, (2) the chain of fortuitous events that occurred to create a public health breakthrough of this magnitude and, (3) make clear that the anti-vaccination movement represents a serious threat to a proven public health intervention
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