Immunization

The two most effective interventions to prevent disease, disability and death caused by infectious diseases are sanitation and immunization. There are now many vaccines in routine use to prevent the major infectious diseases of childhood and to protect against infections encountered through travel or occupational exposure. The introduction of these vaccines has resulted in the global eradication of smallpox, the elimination of poliomyelitis in large parts of the world and a dramatic reduction in the rates of other diseases. Such has been the success of vaccination programmes that successive generations have been virtually spared diseases such as mumps, measles, rubella and whooping cough. The resurgence of some of the aforementioned illnesses through vaccination failure has reinforced the need to avoid compliancy. New vaccines are continually being developed in the face of newly emergent infectious diseases and the changing epidemiology of existing ones. In addition, new techniques are being exploited to produce vaccines with enhanced efficacy and reduced toxicity.