Vaccine Act

The primary course of DTP protection consists of three doses of a combined vaccine, each dose separated by at least 1 month and commencing not earlier than 2 months of age. In such combinations the pertussis component ofthe vaccine acts as an additional adjuvant for the toxoid components. Monovalent pertussis and tetanus vaccines, and combined vaccines lacking the pertussis component (DT) are available. If pertussis vaccination is contraindicated or refused then DT vaccine alone should be offered. The primary course of pertussis vaccination is considered sufficient to confer life-long protection, especially since the mortality associated with disease declines markedly after infancy. The risks associated with tetanus and diphtheria infection persist... 

The Childhood Vaccine Act requires vaccine makers to provide patient information, gives FDA authority to recall biologies, and authorizes civil penalties. 

Following Edward Jenner s discovery of a smallpox vaccine in 1798, and the demonstration by Benjamin Waterhouse in the United States in 1800 that the vaccine was effective, fraudulent versions of the vaccine were marketed throughout the country. A Baltimore physician, John Smith, initially convinced the Maryland legislature to enact a statute designed to ensure the availability of an effective smallpox vaccine supply, and then persuaded Congress to enact the Vaccine Act of 1813 - for the same purpose. This statute authorised the President to appoint a federal agent to preserve the genuine vaccine matter and to furnish the same to any citizen who requested it. 

Compulsory vaccination against smallpox was established by the Vaccination Act of 1853 after the report compiled by the Epidemiological Society on the state of vaccination following the first Vaccination Act of 1840. The 1840 Act had provided free vaccination for the poor to be administered by the Poor Law Guardians. 

Under the Vaccination Act of 1853, all infants had to be vaccinated within the first three years of life, default of which meant the parents were liable to fine or imprisonment. New legislation incorporated in the Vaccination Act of 1867 made it... 

The National Childhood Vaccine Act of 1986 requires that a permanent record of the vaccinations a child receives be maintained. The required information is date of the vaccination route and site of the vaccination vaccine type, manufacturer, lot mnnber, and expiration date and the... 

The FDA was given authority to approve these products as both safe and effective and to require certification that each batch or lot conforms to the established standards of purity and potency. The regulation of biological products (serum, vaccines and blood products) began in 1944 with the Public Health Service Act and was supplemented in 1986 by the Childhood Vaccine Act, which required patient information on vaccines, and gave the FDA authority to recall biologies and authorized penalties for violations. 

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