vaccine

Examples of vaccine in the following topics:

• Vaccine Safety

  • Vaccines carry risks, ranging from rashes or tenderness at the site of injection to fever-associated seizures.
  • Vaccines are biological products with biological effects.
  • Some speculate that children with metabolic disorders might be prone to vaccine side effects.
  • Safer vaccines and manufacturing processes are also in the works.
  • These include current smallpox vaccines that cannot safely be given to immunocompromised people; the tuberculosis vaccine, which is not recommended for HIV-positive infants; and the yellow-fever vaccine, which puts elderly people at particular risk of a yellow-fever-like illness.

• Vaccination

  • Vaccination is a proven way to prevent and even eradicate widespread outbreaks of life-threatening infectious diseases.
  • Global mass vaccination drives have met with enormous success in reducing the incidence of many diseases.
  • Another consideration is that the newer vaccination programs also protect older age groups.
  • By these vaccinated children not contracting these diseases, their parents, grandparents, friends and relatives (not vaccinated against these diseases themselves) will also be protected.
  • Describe how active immunity to diseases can be acquired by natural exposure or by vaccination

• Vaccines and Immunity

  • Vaccinations prevent viruses from spreading by building immunity to the virus.
  • The killed viral vaccines and subunit viruses are both incapable of causing disease.
  • Polio was one disease that represented a milestone in the use of vaccines.
  • The success of the polio vaccine paved the way for the routine dispensation of childhood vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, and other diseases.
  • Vaccinations are designed to boost immunity to a virus to prevent infection.

• Development of New Vaccines

  • New vaccines are being developed to control recent infectious disease epidemics and cancers.
  • A number of new vaccines with major potential for controlling infectious diseases have just been licensed or are at advanced stages of development.
  • Continuing intensive efforts are under way to develop effective vaccines for AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, leishmaniasis, and enteric diseases, among others and to adapt new technologies to improve formulation and delivery.
  • Gardasil is a human papillomavirus vaccine on the market and it protects against HPV-16 and HPV-18 which cause 70% of cervical cancers, 80% of anal cancers, 60% of vaginal cancers, and 40% of vulvar cancers.
  • Describe how new vaccines are being developed to help eradicate several infectious global diseases

• Genetically Engineered Vaccines

  • Despite the early success demonstrated with the hepatitis B vaccine, no other recombinant engineered vaccine has been approved for use in humans.
  • It is unlikely that a recombinant vaccine will be developed to replace an existing licensed human vaccine with a proven record of safety and efficacy.
  • This is due to the economic reality of making vaccines for human use.
  • Genetically engineered subunit vaccines are more costly to manufacture than conventional vaccines, since the antigen must be purified to a higher standard than was demanded of older, conventional vaccines.
  • This can be attributed to these vaccines being held to a higher degree of purity than was traditionally done for an earlier generation of licensed subunit vaccines.

• The Salk Vaccine Field Trial

  • The Salk polio vaccine field trial incorporated a double blind placebo control methodolgy to determine the effectiveness of the vaccine.
  • The Salk polio vaccine field trials constitute one of the most famous and one of the largest statistical studies ever conducted.
  • The Salk vaccine, or inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), is based on three wild, virulent reference strains:
  • Soon after Salk's vaccine was licensed in 1955, children's vaccination campaigns were launched.
  • Jonas Salk administers his polio vaccine on February 26, 1957 in the Commons Room of the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh where the vaccine was created by Salk and his team.

• Production of Vaccines, Antibiotics, and Hormones

  • Biotechnological advances in gene manipulation techniques have further resulted in the production of vaccines, antibiotics, and hormones.
  • Traditional vaccination strategies use weakened or inactive forms of microorganisms to mount the initial immune response.
  • Discuss the methods by which biotechnology is used to produce vaccines, antibiotics, and hormones.

• Preventing Illness

  • Many vaccines are prophylactic vaccines.
  • Polio vaccine, smallpox vaccine, measles vaccine, mumps vaccine and others have greatly reduced many childhood diseases.
  • HPV vaccines prevent certain cancers, and the influenza vaccine prevents influenza.

• The Future of Diagnostic Immunology

  • The future of diagnostic immunology lies in the production of specific antibody-based assays and the development of improved vaccines.
  • Interestingly, no matter what the areas of expertise, vaccine development and understanding how vaccines work pose the greatest challenges.
  • The vaccines currently used primarily generate an antibody response, which is able to attack free-moving pathogens, but is unable to fight bacteria and viruses, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
  • In the cancer research field, vaccines that stimulate the immune system to attack tumor cells are undergoing clinical trials.

• Immunological Memory

  • Vaccination is based on the knowledge that exposure to noninfectious antigens, derived from known pathogens, generates a mild primary immune response .
  • The immune response to vaccination may not be perceived by the host as illness, but still confers immune memory.
  • When exposed to the corresponding pathogen to which an individual was vaccinated, the reaction is similar to a secondary exposure.
  • Because each reinfection generates more memory cells and increased resistance to the pathogen, some vaccine courses involve one or more booster vaccinations to mimic repeat exposures.
  • Vaccines, often delivered by injection into the arm, result in a secondary immune response if the vaccinated individual is later exposed to that pathogen.