Overview of vaccines and vaccination |
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Authors: | Gordon Ada |
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Institution: | Division of Immunology and Genetics, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia. gordon.ada@anu.edu.au |
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Abstract: | Of the 80-plus known infectious agents pathogenic for humans, there are now more than 30 vaccines against 26 mainly viral
and bacterial infections and these greatly minimize subsequent disease and prevent death after exposure to those agents. This
article describes the nature of the vaccines, from live attenuated agents to subunits, their efficacy and safety, and the
kind of the immune responses generated by those vaccines, which are so effective. To date, all licensed vaccines generate
especially specific antibodies, which attach to the infectious agent and therefore can very largely prevent infection. These
vaccines have been so effective in developed countries in preventing mortality after a subsequent infection that attempts
are being made to develop vaccines against many of the remaining infectious agents. Many of the latter are difficult to manipulate;
they can cause persisting infections or show great antigenic variation. A range of new approaches to improve selected immune
responses, such as immunization with DNA or chimeric live vectors, viral or bacterial, are under intense scrutiny, as well
as genomic analysis of the agent. |
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