One of the indisputable achievements of public health is the introduction of vaccines to combat infectious diseases. Today we hardly imagine to be ill or die of smallpox (variola), poliomyelitis (polio) and many other diseases that are destructive and lea to disability and death in children and adults.
In 1798 Jenner first used the word `vaccine`. He uses this term in singular to describe the material taken from those suffering from vaccinia (lat. Vacca - cow, variola vaccina - pox cows). Giving his tribute to Jenner, the great French microbiologist Louis Pasteur in 1880 spread the term `vaccines`, using it for all microbial agents that cause the body to make active immunity, i.e. own antibodies against the corresponding virulent microbe.
Among the first countries to introduce compulsory vaccination against smallpox is Bulgaria. In 1881 the Russian administration in Razgrad started production of the vaccine. From 1903 anti-variola vaccination becomes Mandatory in Bulgaria.
