Today is April 29, 2022 – the Day of Immunology! This is an occasion to unite scientists in presenting the achievements of clinical immunology to the public. Since 2005, this event has been celebrated in Europe, and since 2007 – by the world immunological community.
The importance of immunology for the protection of individual and public health is great. This year the focus will be on World Immunization Week (April 24-30, 2022)! The aim is to emphasize the need for collective action and to encourage the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against infectious diseases.
Vaccines are used worldwide as an effective means of protection. They also help prevent the spread of disease in society. Vaccines work by ‘teaching’ the immune system to defend itself against diseases caused by viruses or bacteria.
The first vaccine was developed in the late 18th century (1796) in the United Kingdom by Edward Jenner against the deadly smallpox disease. Nearly 200 years later, the last known spontaneous outbreak was reported in Somalia in 1977, and in 1980 the WHO announced that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide through vaccination.
Vaccination has also played a role in a number of other diseases such as polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has posed several challenges for immunologists around the world – creating accurate tests to diagnose and monitor the disease, generating modern and effective vaccines, studying the development of the disease and the duration of the immune response after illness and vaccination.
Vaccination against COVID-19 resulted in a significant reduction in the number of patients in intensive care units, the number of hospitalized patients and the number of patients with severe disease.
To mark the World Immunology Day on May 4, 2022 (Wednesday), the Department of Epidemiology and Disaster Medicine together with the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, the Department of Infectious Diseases and the Association of Medical Students of Plovdiv in a hybrid format two consecutive seminars aimed at students studying medical specialties. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mihail Okoliyski, MD (WHO Representative in Bulgaria) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lyubomira Nikolaeva-Glomb, MD (Head of the Virology Department at NCIPD-Sofia) are invited to present data. for the achievements of vaccine prophylaxis