10/30/19
Diarrheal diseases are not usually thought to be like threatening when they are talked about in the United States. However, in developing countries, diarrheal diseases are among the top leading causes of death for children under the age of two. In fact, children under the age of five develop 2-3 diarrheal diseases a year. These diseases can be so harmful to children due to the substantial amount of dehydration that occurs when they are sick. The mothers of these sick children do not understand that their children need water in order to combat the water loss that is occurring from the disease; thus, the children become overly dehydrated, and in severe cases, die.
While there is currently no standard treatment for diarrheal diseases, there has been some discussion as to whether or not a vaccine to prevent diarrheal diseases would be realistic or beneficial to these developing countries. In the article “Considerations for development of whole cell bacterial vaccines to prevent diarrheal diseases in children in developing countries” written by Richard I. Walker (2005), Walker explains that many of conditions leading up to the contraction of diarrheal diseases are due to the fact that, in these developing countries, there are “poor sanitary conditions, unsatisfactory traditional practices concerning waste disposal and poor personal hygiene” (p. 3370). However, Walker continues to state that these conditions would be extremely hard to completely eradicate in the developing countries, so another method of prevention would be more beneficial, such as a vaccine to prevent the diseases (p. 3370). Viruses are the leading cause of the diarrheal diseases that are affecting the people of developing countries. The article explains that “vaccines against these agents offer a potentially effective control measure against these diseases” (p. 3369).
The creation of these vaccines to fight diarrheal diseases would have a major impact on the health and livelihood of many people in developing countries. However, even if the vaccines were created, there are some factors that would have to be taken into account before the vaccines could be considered completely effective. First, once the vaccines are created, there needs to be a way that they can be administered in the affected countries. Whether it be by volunteers or the physicians in the country, the vaccines will not be of any help unless there is a way that they can be distributed. Second, a large portion of the people in the developing countries would need to receive the vaccine in order for it to be effective. A term called herd immunity can be used to describe why this is effective. Each microorganism requires a certain number of susceptible individuals in a population (herd) to maintain the chain of transmission. With enough immune individuals, the microbe would not be able to spread; this collective immunity through mass immunization confers indirect protection on the nonimmune members. This seems like it would be a very simple way to keep everyone free of diarrheal disease: all (or most) receive the vaccination, and everyone is safe, even those who did not receive it. However, religious practices or beliefs could stop certain members of society or a society as a whole from receiving the vaccination. If this were to occur, then the vaccine would not be helpful at all, and the country would be back to where it started: children would keep dying from diarrheal diseases. All of these factors must be considered in order to determine whether or not the creation of a vaccine to prevent diarrheal diseases in developing countries would really be beneficial.
References:
Mukwazhi, T. (2009). Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/34045311/ns/health-infectious_diseases/t/biggest-child-killers-pneumonia-diarrhea/#.XceQcldKg2w .
Walker, R. I. (2005). “Considerations for development of whole cell bacterial vaccines to prevent diarrheal diseases in children in developing countries.” Vaccine 23(26), 3369-3385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2004.12.029
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