Inoculation and the eventual adoption of vaccination as an essential component for public health has been proven to be the most significant outcome from histories early epidemics. Every year this life saving measure prevents many illnesses and deaths due to disease. The progression of medical research and technology has allowed physicians and governments to protect the public from debilitating or deadly diseases. Its success has made vaccinations one of the primary focuses of public health in the twenty first century. Many nations have implemented free vaccination programs as part of their public health initiatives in preventing disease and lowering health care costs. Even though not everyone participates in these vaccination programs the ones that do provide protection for the rest of the community through herd immunity. Those that are vaccinated become immune to a particular disease slowing its spread of infection through the population lowering the rate of illness. Jenner could not have known in his time that his experiments would make the eradication of smallpox virus in 1980 a reality. To this day it is the only disease affecting humans that has been systematically eradicated from the globe. In addition his work allowed future researchers to attempt to prevent other illnesses from occurring. One of the most notable would be polio, a debilitating disease that left