A nurse greets a patient with an elbow bump.
Credit: © 2021 Prostock-studio/Shutterstock.

National nurses week begins today, May 6, 2022. Each year an entire week is dedicated to the hardworking, brave, and caring nurses who take care of sick, injured, and vulnerable patients. If you know or see any nurses this week, make sure to tell them “thank you” for all that they do. The week always ends on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Nightingale founded the nursing profession as we know it today.

Born into a wealthy British family in 1820, Nightingale was expected to marry. However, she felt called to help the sick. She led the care of injured soldiers in the Crimean War (1853-1856). From this work, she became a world authority on scientific care of the sick. In 1860, Nightingale used donations of about $222,000 to found the first school of nursing, Nightingale Training School for Nurses at St. Thomas’s Hospital in London. The United States asked Nightingale’s advice for setting up military hospitals during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Nightingale received many honors and became the first woman to be given the British Order of Merit. She died on Aug. 13, 1910.

Nursing is a profession that provides care to the sick, the injured, and other people in need of medical assistance. Nurses perform a wide variety of duties in many settings. Many nurses work in hospitals, outpatient clinics, or other health care facilities. Other nurses work in health insurance companies, research institutions, and pharmaceutical (medicinal drug) companies. Nurses also work in schools, factories, and the armed forces. Nurses may run general health screening or immunization clinics and blood drives.

Patients often get most of their direct health care through nurses. Among their duties, nurses record patient medical histories and symptoms, help perform medical tests, administer treatment and medications, operate medical machinery, and help with follow-up care and rehabilitation. They also provide advice and emotional support to patients and their families.

Nurses educate patients about various medical conditions. They teach patients and their families how to manage illnesses or injuries. They explain home care needs, including diet, nutrition, and exercise programs; physical therapy; and how to take medication. Some nurses work to promote public knowledge about health and health care. They may give public lectures on health and medical topics.

More women serve in the field of nursing than in any other profession except teaching. However, this trend is changing. Until the 1960′s, men made up only 1 percent of professional nurses. By the early 2000′s, men made up more than 10 percent of students enrolled in undergraduate professional nursing programs. Men make up about 6 percent of professional nurses.

Nursing offers satisfaction to those who desire to help others. It also provides a wide range of job opportunities. A capable nurse—especially one with an advanced degree—can generally feel sure of a job. Salaries for nurses are often high compared with those for other professions. A nurse must like people and want to help them. A nurse must also have self-reliance and good judgment. Patience, tact, honesty, responsibility, and the ability to work easily with others are valuable traits. Good health is another requirement.

Nurses have worked tirelessly throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, many nurses took care of people sick from COVID-19 and quarantined away from their families and friends to prevent spreading the virus. While nurses always deserve praise and gratitude, throughout the past few years they have been true heroes.

Nurse administering a vaccination.
Credit: © Shutterstock

The coronavirus disease COVID-19 has killed more than 1 million people and infected more than 60 million people around the world. But, hope may be just around the corner, in the form of vaccines. Vaccines are special medicines that can help make a person immune to a particular disease. Vaccines have been successful in fighting many other diseases, including chickenpox, meningitis, and yellow fever.

In late November, the companies Pfizer and Moderna each applied for emergency approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for their COVID-19 vaccines.  The two companies are among dozens of drugmakers that have worked tirelessly to develop a vaccine against the deadly virus.

Most vaccines are administered into the body by injection. A vaccine contains substances that stimulate the body’s immune system to produce molecules called antibodies. The immune system uses antibodies to fight against germs that enter the body. Antibodies produced in response to a vaccine can protect a person who is exposed to the actual disease-causing organism. The process of protecting the body in this way is called immunization. 

Pfizer and Moderna began clinical trials in July. During these trials, participants were given either the vaccine or a placebo. A placebo is a substance that contains no active ingredient. Comparing infection rates in subjects who received the placebo with those among subjects who got the vaccine can help determine if the vaccine is effective. In the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials, half the participants were given a placebo of salt water, and half were given the vaccine. The researchers then waited to see who might get sick. The results were very promising—both vaccines were about 95 percent effective in preventing COVID-19. By contrast, commonly administered influenza vaccines (known as flu shots) are 40 percent to 60 percent effective.

Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in modern medicine. They have nearly or completely eliminated several diseases. For instance, Edward Jenner, a British physician, introduced vaccination in 1796 as a preventive measure against smallpox. By the late 1970′s, smallpox vaccination had wiped out the dreadful disease. In the United States and many other countries, disease has been greatly reduced by widespread childhood immunizations. In 1952, for example, more than 21,000 cases of the paralytic disease polio were reported in the United States. By the end of the 1900′s, fewer than 10 cases per year were reported. More than 95 percent of children in the United States receive all their recommended immunizations by the time they enter school.

In many cases, administration of a COVID-19 vaccine will be voluntary. But, it will be a while until everybody who wants a vaccine can get one. Once approved, the vaccine—from Pfizer, Moderna, or other companies—will likely first be available to health care workers, frontline workers (workers likely to encounter the disease), and people who are vulnerable to the virus, including the elderly and people with such risk factors as obesity or diabetes. Some of these people may receive the vaccine by the end of 2020. But, most people will have to wait until the spring of 2021.

May 8, 2019

Measles is making a comeback. The highly contagious disease is characterized by the spotty pink rash it causes over the body. Once rare, measles has come roaring back in the United States, as more than 750 cases were officially recorded in the first four months of 2019. That number is more than twice the amount of U.S. cases typically recorded in a full year. The new measles cases were primarily recorded in large outbreaks in the states of New York and Washington, but the disease has also appeared in 21 other states.

A health worker gives a measles vaccine to a young girl in Peshawar, Pakistan. Credit: © Asianet-Pakistan/Shutterstock

Measles chiefly strikes young children, but it is increasingly affecting adolescents and young adults. People who have the disease pass the virus by coughing and sneezing. People can spread the disease long before they realize they are ill. Three to five days after the first symptoms appear, faint pink spots break out over the body. Few people in the United States die of measles. But the disease is dangerous to those with a weakened immune system, and measles kills many undernourished children in other countries.

A child with measles shows the characteristic pink rash that spreads over the body. Credit: © Lowell Georgia, Photo Researchers

Public health experts are dismayed that measles has regained a foothold in the United States, where it was once eradicated. In 2000, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that measles had been completely eliminated. This was an important public health achievement made possible by the widespread use of the highly effective measles vaccine. Of course, that did not mean that measles was completely gone. CDC officials still recorded a number of cases brought in from travelers—mostly from parts of Asia and Europe where measles is less well controlled. But, until recently, measles transmission in the United States had ended.

In recent years, however, a misinformed yet highly visible anti-vaccination (anti-vaxx for short) movement has led to fewer vaccinations, which has in turn led to the current measles outbreak. Anti-vaxx activists in the United States have launched a coordinated effort to convince parents not to vaccinate their children. They falsely claim that childhood vaccinations can cause a variety of health complications, autism, or even death. This disinformation is spread through websites, Facebook, and other social media. Medical professionals point out that anti-vaxx claims are often misleading and lack any credible or relevant evidence.

The anti-vaxx movement has spearheaded efforts to allow parents to opt out of mandatory vaccinations previously require to enroll their children in public schools. The latest measles outbreak is spread primarily though such unvaccinated students, who expose other children to measles and other preventable diseases, such as whooping cough.

Unvaccinated people, including those who may have a weakened immune system from chemotherapy, can be protected from measles through herd immunity. This term describes a population protected from a disease because high rates of vaccination make it impossible for the virus to spread. Although the measles virus can remain infectious for two or more hours outside the human body, the virus ultimately requires a human host to reproduce. If enough people in a population are vaccinated, the cycle of transmission is disrupted, and the virus will become extinct.

However, herd immunity does not work unless a great majority of the population is vaccinated. To achieve herd immunity for measles, at least 90 to 95 percent of the population needs to be vaccinated. In the past, this was achieved through mandatory vaccinations for school children. In recent years, however, increasing numbers of parents have requested vaccine exemptions for their children on ethical or religious grounds. Many states, cities, and school districts are now reconsidering allowing such exemptions.

Jan. 31, 2012

India celebrated a major victory against polio in January with the announcement that for the first time, the country had not recorded any new cases of the crippling disease during the previous 12 months. In 2009, at least 741 cases of infection with wild (naturally occurring) poliovirus were recorded in India, more than in any other country. In 2011, several million government and foreign aid workers fanned out across India in two national immunization campaigns aimed at reaching some 172 million children under the age of 5. About 70 million children in the highest-risk areas received multiple vaccinations. Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said India’s $2-billion campaign to eradicate the disease was “arguably its greatest public health achievement.”

Polio is caused by a virus that enters the mouth and nose, then travels to the nervous system through the intestines. Crowded living conditions and poor sanitary conditions make it easier for the virus to spread. The virus may attack the nerve cells of the brain and spinal cord, causing paralysis. However, infection by poliovirus does not always result in severe illness. Some patients show only mild symptoms, such as fever, headache, sore throat, and vomiting. Some polio patients suffer new symptoms 30 years or more after the initial attack, a complication called post-polio syndrome.

The first effective weapon in preventing poliomyelitis was a vaccine developed by Jonas Salk in the early 1950′s. Albert B. Sabin later developed an effective oral polio vaccine.

UNICEF promotes the health and well-being of young people throughout the world. This infant is receiving a polio vaccination as part of a UNICEF immunization program in Afghanistan. AP/Wide World

India’s efforts to eradicate the disease were supported by the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, launched in 1988 by WHO, Rotary International, and the United Nations Children’s Fund. By 2007, the Initiative’s efforts had slashed worldwide polio cases by 99 percent. In 2012, wild poliovirus was endemic (constantly present somewhere in the population) in only three countries–Afghanistan, Nigeria, and Pakistan, though polio outbreaks sometimes occurred in other countries. No cases of polio have been recorded in the United States since 1984. Public health officials hope to make polio the second infectious disease eradicated worldwide. In 1980, officials from WHO formally announced that smallpox, one of most feared diseases in history, had been eliminated worldwide.

Additional World Book articles:

• Fighting a Persistent Foe (A Special Report)
• Kenny, Elizabeth
• Perlman, Itzhak
• Roosevelt, Franklin Delano (Battle with polio)