Around 500 BCE, Hippocrates, a pioneering physician in the history of Medicine, and considered as the principal author of the Hippocratic Corpus, wrote descriptions of mumps, diphtheria, epidemic jaundice, and other conditions.

Hippocrates’ ‘prevention is better than cure’ offers a valuable principle for preventive medicine, including paediatrics, and is the milestone of all immunization strategies used today in neonates, children and adolescents.