This review focuses on the immunization of animals as a means of preventing human diseases (zoonoses). Three frameworks for the use of vaccines in this context are described, and examples are provided of successes and failures. Framework I vaccines are used for protection of humans and economically valuable animals, where neither plays a role in the transmission cycle. The benefit of collaborat...

Inactivated influenza virus vaccines (IVVs) are used for prevention of influenza and its complications. Present vaccines are immunogenic, of low reactogenicity, and protective, but protection has varied between 0% and 100%. Increasing the dose of hemagglutinin and neuraminidase antigens with purified proteins significantly increased serum and nasal antibody responses; however, trials with newer...

AIM To estimate the incremental net benefits (INBs) of a hypothetical ideal vaccine with all of the advantages and no disadvantages of existing oral and inactivated poliovirus vaccines compared with current vaccines available for future outbreak response. METHODS INB estimates based on expected costs and polio cases from an existing global model of long-term poliovirus risk management. RESU...

Herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1) and -2 (HSV-2) are highly prevalent global pathogens which commonly cause recurrent oral and genital ulcerations. Less common but more serious complications include meningitis, encephalitis, neonatal infection, and keratitis. HSV-2 infection is a significant driver of the HIV epidemic, increasing the risk of HIV acquisition 3 fold. As current control strategi...

Recipients of solid-organ transplantation are at risk of severe infections due to their life-long immunosuppression. Despite emerging evidence that vaccinations are safe and effective among immunosuppressed patients, most vaccines are still underutilized in these patients. The efficacy, safety, and protocols of several vaccines in this patient population are poorly understood. Timing of vaccina...

While effective preventive vaccines induce intended protective immunity, they also induce unintended adverse events (AEs). Generally speaking, compared to killed, inactivated vaccines and protein vaccines, live attenuated vaccines induce more protective immune responses. However, live attenuated vaccines are also associated with more AEs and even more serious AEs. For example, while live attenu...

The development of needle-free vaccines is one of the recently defined "grand challenges in global health" (H. Varmus, R. Klausner, R. Klausner, R. Zerhouni, T. Acharya, A. S. Daar, and P. A. Singer, Science 302:398-399, 2003). To explore whether a natural pathway to the inductive site of the mucosa-associated lymphatic tissue could be exploited for atraumatic immunization purposes, replication...

The simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) of the common chimpanzee is widely acknowledged as the direct ancestor of HIV-1. There is increasing historical evidence that during the late 1950s, kidneys were routinely excised from central African chimpanzees by scientists who were collaborating with the polio vaccine research of Dr Hilary Koprowski, and sent - inter alia - to vaccine-making laborator...

Edible vaccines offer exciting possibilities for significantly reducing the burden of diseases like hepatitis and diarrhoea, particularly in developing world where storing and administering vaccines are the major problems. Edible vaccines are prepared by molecular farming using the science of genetic engineering. Selected genes are introduced into the plants. The transgenic plant is then induce...