Scripta Medica (Jan 2015)
New achievements in vaccine development
Abstract
Vaccines have made a major contribution to global public health, including the eradication of one deadly disease, small pox, and the near eradication of another, poliomyelitis. In the future, vaccination will be expected to eliminate the remaining childhood infectious diseases. Development of new, safe and effective adjuvants is also an important part of vaccine research. The new technologies minimize the risks associated with the new generation of vaccines. Research is also taking place into ways of making vaccines more thermostable, reducing the need for a cold chain for their storage and delivery. There are already needle- and pain-free vaccines that can be given as a nasal spray or taken orally, but researchers are coming close to releasing a new form of vaccine delivery called vaccine patches. Vaccines can be used as a prevention of the development of a cancer or control of a cancer, but also to help to control chronic non-infectious diseases in adults. A large number of very important vaccines such as vaccines against human papilloma virus, enterovirus 71, malaria, herpes zoster, meningococcal type B, as well as the first nasal vaccine and the first quadrivalent influenza vaccine etc. have been approved since 2000, and a great number of vaccines are currently under investigation.
