The gasping breath and distinctive sounds of whooping cough; the iron lungs and braces designed for children paralyzed by polio; and the devastating birth defects caused by rubella: To most Americans, these infectious scourges simultaneously inspire dread and represent obscure maladies of years past. Yet a little more than a century ago, the U.S. infant mortality rate was a staggering 20 percent, and the childhood mortality rate before age five was another disconcerting 20 percent... in an epoch before the existence of preventive methods and effective therapies, infectious diseases such as measles, diphtheria, smallpox, and pertussis topped the list of childhood killers. Fortunately, many of these devastating diseases have been contained, especially in industrialized nations, because of the development and widespread distribution of safe, effective, and affordable vaccines.
Pandemic concept, close up of scientist injecitng vaccine into the earth
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