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I am honored to have been invited to open this plenary sessionVaccines in the Late Twentieth CenturyPromises and Problems. At the joint meeting of these two distinguished societies during the United States' Bicentenary celebrations in 1976, I was privileged to address the plenary session on the history of tropical medicine. My subject then was Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, who, in collaboration with President Thomas Jefferson, introduced smallpox vaccination into the infant United States, including its population of American Indians. In discharging my responsibility here today, I'd like to begin again with an historical perspective before discussing vaccine delivery in contemporary developing countries.
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)a soon to be vaccine-preventable diseasemay be a recent phenomenon in Central Africa, America, and Europe, but some of the diseases for which effective vaccines are now available have been around for a long time. A stele dating from the fourteenth century B.C. is evidence that paralytic poliomyelitis was a problem for at least one poor doorkeeper in ancient Egypt.
Accepted for publication June 11, 1985.
* Presented at the Joint Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Baltimore, Maryland, 3 December 1984.
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