what vaccines do for the world. - Democratic Underground

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Tue Feb-17-09 01:28 PM
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what vaccines do for the world.

http://www.who.int/topics/immunization/en/index.html

Immunization is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. Vaccines stimulate the body’s own immune system to protect the person against subsequent infection or disease.

Immunization is a proven tool for controlling and eliminating life-threatening infectious diseases and is estimated to avert over 2 million deaths each year. It is one of the most cost-effective health investments, with proven strategies that make it accessible to even the most hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations. It has clearly defined target groups; it can be delivered effectively through outreach activities; and vaccination does not require any major lifestyle change.
More about immunization

Measles is a highly contagious, serious disease caused by a virus.
Related links

:: More about measles

:: Measles Initiative

It remains a leading cause of death among young children globally, despite the availability of a safe and effective vaccine. An estimated 197 000 people died from measles in 2007, mostly children under the age of five.

Measles is caused by a virus in the paramyxovirus family. The measles virus normally grows in the cells that line the back of the throat and the lungs. It is a human disease not known to occur in animals.

Targeted vaccination campaigns have had a major impact on reducing measles deaths. From 2000 to 2007 about 576 million children who live in high risk countries were vaccinated against the disease. Global measles deaths decreased by 74% during the period. The largest health gains occurred in the eastern Mediterranean and Africa where measles cases and deaths fell by 90% and 89%, respectively.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs289/en/index.html
from '06
A number of new vaccines with major potential for controlling infectious diseases have just been licensed or are at advanced stages of development. Among the illnesses targeted are rotavirus diarrhoea, pneumococcal disease, and cervical cancer (as caused by human papillomavirus), which together kill more than a million people each year, most of them in developing countries. In addition to these efforts against diseases of global importance, progress is being made on a vaccine for the regional menace posed by meningococcal meningitis serogroup A, which causes frequent epidemics and high rates of death and disability in African countries south of the Sahara.

These advanced candidate vaccines are the focus of the information provided below. However, it should be noted that 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 improved formulation and delivery.

Vaccine development proceeds through discovery, process engineering, toxicology and animal studies to human Phase I, II, and III trials. The process can take more than 10 years, depending on the disease. The human trials focus initially on safety, involving small groups of people (I); then progress to moderate-sized "target" populations (persons close to the age and other characteristics for whom the vaccine is intended) to determine both safety and the stimulation of immune response (II); and finally to large target populations to establish whether a vaccine actually prevents a disease as intended (efficacy) (III).