Vaccines: Preventing Disease and Protecting Health

Vaccines: Preventing Disease and Protecting Health celebrates the various ways vaccines have played a role in improving the health of the world’s populations. In early sections, the book relates successful efforts to fight disease with vaccines, including the eradication of polio from the Americas and the potential contribution of new measles vaccine formulations to reducing measles mortality worldwide. It also looks at the challenges posed in using vaccines to cope with emerging and re-emerging diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and bioterrorism.

In subsequent sections, the authors examine innovative efforts underway to test the efficacy of vaccines against diseases such as meningococcal infection in Africa, Haemophilus influenza type b, varicella, and hepatitis A, and look at efforts to develop a new generation of vaccines against cholera and typhoid, shigella, and Helicobacter pylori. The advances in influenza vaccine development and Hepatitis C are also presented.

The book includes sections on the quest for vaccines against tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, dengue, malaria, and hookworm. New concepts for vaccine development, adjuvants and delivery systems such as maternal immunization, DNA vaccines, and oral vaccines derived from transgenic plants are also discussed.

Later sections deal with the use of vaccines against potential bioterrorism attacks, with a particular emphasis on smallpox and anthrax. Regulatory and safety issues related to vaccines are also presented from the various perspectives of the public sector, the pharmaceutical industry, and the vaccine consumer.

The final chapter highlights the ongoing challenges of vaccine development, disease prevention, internal and external financing and sustainability of immunization programs, and the impact of health sector reform on these issues.

Dr. Ciro A. de Quadros, the book’s technical editor, also contributed significant chapters to the book. The roster of authors reads like a "Who's Who" in public health and in vaccine development and use. These men and women are the best scientists in their fields. They are breaking new ground in vaccines and immunization programs, bringing the promise of health to the world's populations.