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If one is asked what he would consider as one of the most important inventions made by man, it is possible that he would not say vaccines. This is unfortunate because vaccines are indeed under-rated and have save millions of lives. It is usually those that involve technology that are usually considered as our top inventions. Of course, this is unfair to vaccines, which have been very important in the battle against diseases. Such things should actually be treated as man's most important inventions.

Now, there are many vaccines but the very first was one that was meant to cure smallpox. This was the result of the study made by Edward Jenner when he was curious about the statement of a milkmaid who said that because she had contracted a milder disease, cowpox, she would not be affected by small pox. When Jenner inoculated someone with a pus from the milkmaid, who happened to be infected with cowpox, he confirmed the truth of the milkmaid's statement. This discovery brought about the creation of the world's first vaccine, one which ultimately helped millions worldwide and now smallpox is virtually irradicated.

There are several types of vaccines. The distinction between them is based on the methods that these are employed to prevent certain illnesses and at the same time encouraging positive immune reaction to harmful viruses and bacteria. The different types are killed, attenuated, toxoid, subunit, conjugate, experimental, and valence. Killed vaccines are those bacteria or micro-organisms that have been rendered incapable of producing harmful effects while attenuated are still made of live ones but whose negative qualities are no longer effective.

Toxoid vaccines are somehow different because these actually come from plants or animals with toxic compounds. With subunit vaccines, on the other hand, only the fragments of good microorganisms are extracted and used. Conjugate vaccines are also made of bacteria but these are those with nearly no outer coats of immunogenic polysaccharide. Just but how it is labeled, there is yet no massive vaccine production for experimental vaccines.

Despite the fact that they are different from each other, it is clear that the main purpose of vaccines is to immobilize certain micro-organisms that may cause diseases. Another important point that makes vaccines similar to each other is that nearly all of these are based on biological micro-organisms. Even the toxoid vaccine comes from toxic compounds from either plants or animals.

The important point about vaccines is that they work against the most common yet dangerous diseases that have evolved through the years. These are clearly the products of man's hard work to combat life-threatening health and medical issues. As more diseases evolve, it is obvious that more vaccines would be developed in the future.