Vaccination's lifetime of blessings

But, unlike most dreams, this one is achievable. Over my lifetime, I have been fortunate to witness the extraordinary impact that vaccines have had on protecting children from illness and death - especially in the developing world.

Vaccines have always had a special meaning for me. As a young child in South Africa, I nearly died from polio.Back then - in the early 1930's - there was no vaccine for this highly infectious disease. With good reason, parents everywhere were terrified that poliovirus would reach their doorstep - like a plague - striking a child and causing irreversible paralysis in a matter of hours, or, worse, death in a matter of days.