"A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious or malignant disease."
Immunizations used to prevent infectious diseases, including types, delivery methods, and efficacy.
Immunology: The study of the immune system and its response to vaccines.
Microbiology: The study of microorganisms, including the ones targeted by vaccines.
Epidemiology: The study of the spread and distribution of diseases, including the role of vaccines in controlling outbreaks.
History of Vaccines: The history of vaccine development and its impact on public health.
Vaccine Design and Development: The processes involved in designing and developing vaccines, including preclinical and clinical trials.
Vaccine Safety: The safety and efficacy of vaccines, including the management of adverse events.
Vaccine Policy: The policy development and implementation relating to vaccine recommendations for individuals and populations.
Pharmaceutical Industry: The role of the pharmaceutical industry in vaccine development and production.
Public Health: The role of vaccines in preventing and controlling infectious disease outbreaks in populations.
Immunization Programs: The organization, delivery, and monitoring of immunization programs, including the role of healthcare providers.
Health Equity and Social Justice: The social, cultural, and economic factors that influence vaccine access and uptake.
Vaccine Hesitancy: The reasons for vaccine hesitancy and strategies to address it.
Global Health: The impact of vaccines on global health, including vaccine access and distribution in low- and middle-income countries.
One Health: The interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health, including the role of vaccines in preventing zoonotic diseases.
Emerging Infectious Diseases: The challenges and opportunities of developing vaccines for new and emerging infectious diseases.
Live attenuated vaccines: These vaccines contain weakened live viruses that can still replicate in the host without causing disease. Examples include measles, mumps, rubella, and the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine.
Inactivated vaccines: These vaccines contain viruses or bacteria that have been killed or inactivated with heat, chemicals, or radiation. Examples include the polio vaccine, hepatitis A, and rabies vaccine.
Toxoid vaccines: These vaccines are made from bacterial toxins that have been treated to inactivate their toxic properties. This includes vaccines against diphtheria and tetanus.
Subunit, recombinant, and conjugate vaccines: These vaccines contain only specific parts of the pathogen, such as proteins or sugars, that are the most effective at inducing immunity. Examples include the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine, and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
DNA vaccines: These vaccines use a small piece of the pathogen's DNA to stimulate an immune response. This type of vaccine is still experimental and not widely used.
mRNA vaccines: These vaccines are a new type of vaccine that use small pieces of genetic material (mRNA) to instruct cells in the body to make copies of a particular part of the pathogen. Examples include the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
Vector vaccines: These vaccines use a harmless virus or bacteria to deliver a piece of the pathogen to the body's cells, triggering an immune response. Examples include the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and the Ebola vaccine.
Intra-nasal vaccines: These vaccines are administered through the nasal cavity instead of an injection. One example is the Flumist vaccine, which is nasal spray vaccine.
Combination vaccines: These vaccines combine several different vaccines into one injection. Examples include the MMR vaccine and the DTaP vaccine.
Adjuvanted vaccines: These vaccines contain an adjuvant, a substance that helps enhance the body's immune response to the vaccine. An example is the herpes zoster (shingles) vaccine.
"A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins."
"The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and to further recognize and destroy any of the microorganisms associated with that agent that it may encounter in the future."
"Vaccines can be prophylactic (to prevent or ameliorate the effects of a future infection by a natural or 'wild' pathogen), or therapeutic (to fight a disease that has already occurred, such as cancer)."
"Some vaccines offer full sterilizing immunity, in which infection is prevented completely."
"The administration of vaccines is called vaccination."
"Vaccination is the most effective method of preventing infectious diseases; widespread immunity due to vaccination is largely responsible for the worldwide eradication of smallpox and the restriction of diseases such as polio, measles, and tetanus from much of the world."
"The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that licensed vaccines are currently available for twenty-five different preventable infections."
"The first recorded use of inoculation to prevent smallpox occurred in the 16th century in China."
"Lady Mary Wortley Montagu brought the folk practice of inoculation against smallpox from Turkey to Britain in 1721."
"The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae (smallpox of the cow), the term devised by Edward Jenner to denote cowpox."
"He used the phrase 'Variolae vaccinae' in 1798 for the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae Known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox."
"In 1881, Louis Pasteur proposed that the terms should be extended to cover the new protective inoculations then being developed."
"The science of vaccine development and production is termed vaccinology."
"The worldwide eradication of smallpox can largely be attributed to widespread immunity due to vaccination."
"The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that licensed vaccines are currently available for twenty-five different preventable infections."
"The administration of vaccines aims to prevent or ameliorate the effects of future infections."
"A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and can be made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins."
"The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as a threat, destroy it, and further recognize and destroy any associated microorganisms in the future."
"Vaccines can be categorized as prophylactic, to prevent future infections by natural pathogens, or therapeutic, to combat diseases that have already occurred, such as cancer."