The advent of vaccines has considerable effect on the public health and disease prevention.
Thanks Ms.Ruchi,
Yes, it is indeed effective with the advent of new infectious diseases.
The main objective of Public Health is to ensure better and safer health care system among the community and to maintain their good health. Prophylaxis might be most probably the best word to denote the whole spectra in a single array. Moreover, vaccines are designed for prevention of infections or prophylaxis, thus both components bear the same objective. You can imagine this paradigmatic relationship as a triangle on which three points resembles as: Vaccination, Prophylaxis and Public Health.
Vaccination as an effective tool in public health cannot be under estimated. Very simple evidence is in the numbers of vaccine preventable diseases that are no longer on the disease control radar.
Without the effectiveness of prophylactic vaccines in Africa, the continent would have been overtaken by numerous diseases.
Vaccination is the best way to counter and prevent infectious diseases in general and viral diseases in particular, it has made feasible of diseases like of polio virus and others, Regular and judicious use of vaccination, particularly mass vaccination and from time time following needful vaccination is very much helpful in preventing clinical diseases as well as epidemics and pandemics. Apart from live and killed vaccines, nowadays researchers are ahead of inventing other safer and effective vaccines - like DNA vaccine, recombinant vaccines, reverse genetics based, mutant / pathogenic determinant deleted vaccines, plant based / oral-edible vaccines and others. Added to this novel vaccine delivery systems including of spray, nanodelivery and others are on the way. Hope practical applications will be soon of these novel vaccines very soon,. Novel adjuvants like TLRs, HMGB1, cytokines and other immunomodulatory regimens may adjunct in enhancing vaccinal responses. Apart from this awareness and policies for mass vaccination need to be encouraged. Regarding African continent all such practices need to be adapted as well as research on vaccines need to be encouraged.
Vaccines are also stepping beyond the realm of infectious disease prevention to be important cancer prevention tools, when cancers arise as a result of preexisting infectious disease. This is the case for HPV vaccination for cervical cancer prevention and of prevention of liver cancer through hepatitis B vaccination.. Worldwide, chronic infection with hepatitis causes the great majority of primary liver cancers and hundreds of thousands of deaths.
Small pox eradication, nearing polio eradication, effective control of diphtheria , reduction in tetanus( no maternal mortality and significantreduction in neoanatal tetanus) and pertusis, elimination of measles in USA are all glaring examples of prophylactic vaccination strategy having global impact. At no cost hwever the effective routiine prophylactic vaccination coverage of eligible population should be compromised. The newer vaccines are making the administration and uptake of vaccine very easy and safe.
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