We have two vials and packaging for routine vaccines given to children, including the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine (MMR) and the haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and meningitis C vaccine.
Childhood vaccines protect children from a variety of serious or potentially fatal diseases, including diphtheria, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, tetanus, whooping cough and others. If these diseases seem uncommon — or even unheard of — it's usually because these vaccines are doing their job. Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases.
Smallpox was the first disease for which a vaccine was produced. The smallpox vaccine was invented in 1796 by English physician Edward Jenner. He was the first to publish evidence that it was effective and to provide advice on its production. It was called vaccination because it was derived from a virus affecting cows (Latin: vacca 'cow'). Smallpox was a contagious and deadly disease, causing the deaths of 20–60% of infected adults and over 80% of infected children. When smallpox was finally eradicated in 1979, it had already killed an estimated 300–500 million people in the 20th century.
Listen to Matthew Snape, Professor in General Paediatrics and Vaccinology at the Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford Department of Paediatrics, talk about vaccines below: