EigoPro 2級 読解 — The Power of Vaccines

The Power of Vaccines Few inventions in the history of medicine have saved as many lives as the vaccine. Diseases that once killed millions of people every year, especially young children, have been controlled or even wiped out almost entirely. Yet many people do not fully understand how a vaccine works, or how much we owe to this quiet medical miracle. The basic idea behind a vaccine is surprisingly clever. Our bodies have a natural defence system that learns to fight an illness after we catch it. The problem is that catching a dangerous disease can be deadly. A vaccine solves this by showing the body a weak or harmless version of the germ. The body learns to recognise the enemy and prepares its defences, without the person ever becoming seriously ill. If the real disease appears later, the body is ready to fight it off at once. The effects of vaccines on human history are hard to imagine. Smallpox, a terrible disease that killed hundreds of millions of people over the centuries, was completely removed from the world by a global vaccination effort. Other illnesses that once filled hospitals, such as polio, have become rare in most countries. Thanks to vaccines, children today are far more likely to grow up healthy than at any time in the past. This success, however, brings its own challenge. Because vaccines have made certain diseases so rare, some people no longer fear them and choose not to be vaccinated. If too many people make this choice, diseases that were almost defeated can return. Doctors stress that vaccines protect not only the individual but also the wider community, especially those too young or too ill to be vaccinated themselves.

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