[Vaccination perspectives]

Abstract

The aim of vaccinology is to improve the available vaccines and to develop new ones in the light of progress in immunology, molecular biology and biotechnologies. But it must go beyond this, and aim to protect all populations and control diseases, even eradicate them where possible. New vaccine strategies must be developed taking into account the epidemiology of diseases and the inherent logistic problems of implementing these strategies under local conditions. There are three major thrusts to the progress of the discipline. The improvement of the vaccines available. One of the drives of vaccinology is not only to deliver vaccines of increasing safety (replacement of the current vaccine for whooping cough with an acellular vaccine for example), but also to improve vaccine efficacy and immunogenicity (in particular for flu, tuberculosis, cholera and rabies vaccines). The optimisation of vaccination programmes and strategies for vaccinations. The ideal is to protect against the greatest possible number of diseases with the smallest number of vaccinations. The development of combinations of vaccines is central to this goal. The objective for the year 2000 is a hexavalent vaccine DTPP Hib HB. The development of new vaccines. Classic techniques continue to be successfully used (inactivated hepatitis A vaccine; attenuated live vaccines for chicken pox and dengue fever; conjugated polyosidic bacterial vaccines for meningococci and Streptococcus pneumoniae). However, it will become possible to prepare vaccines against most transmissible diseases using genetic engineering techniques.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)