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History and Progress of Vaccine Development -

Vaccine production and immunization or vaccination is the most important application of immunotechnology, as far as human welfare is concerned. The first experiment in immunization was performed by Louis Pasteur, a French chemist turned biologist, on July 6, 1885, when he treated a young boy against rabies.

He extracted fluid from the spinal cord of a rabid dog and injected it in small amount to the boy, who was bitten several times by a rabid dog. Apparently the extract from the spinal cord had stimulated the production of antibodies against the rabies virus.

The science and application of the vaccine technology, however, has made significant progress in recent decades, so that the period 1950-70 is considered to be the golden age for vaccine development.

During this period, vaccines for poliomyelitis, measles, mumps and rebella were developed. In majority of the vaccine recipients there is no significant ill effects and mortality rate among vaccines varies from about one per 200,000 to one in 3,000,000. Thus the vaccines are quite safe and cost effective.

However, productions of vaccines against certain important infectious agents have been difficult. The problems involved in the production of vaccine in such cases include the following:

(i) Antigenic variation or presence of many serotypes as in influenza, rhinovirus and in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

(ii) Integration of viral DNA/cDNA in the host cell genome as in hepatitis B and retrovirus.

(iii) Large animal reservoirs as in influenza and human HIV.

(iv)Infection transmitted by cells which mayor may not express viral antigen as in HIV.

(v) Crucial cells of the immune system are infected as in HIV.

If a pathogen has most or all of these characteristics, it is difficults to produce an effective vaccine. The HIV causing AIDS at present seems to fit this description.

 
 

 
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