Dear Cosmina,

The following link contains General Recommendations on Immunization. Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) which may be helpful in providing the information you asked for. 

I have copied the General Principles for Vaccine Scheduling along with the list of vaccines described in the report for quick view:

MMR Vaccine

Hib Vaccine

Hepatitis B Vaccine

Poliovirus Vaccine

DTaP Vaccine

Varicella Vaccine

Pneumococcal Vaccines

General Principles for Vaccine Scheduling

Optimal response to a vaccine depends on multiple factors, including the nature of the vaccine and the age and immune status of the recipient. Recommendations for the age at which vaccines are administered are influenced by age-specific risks for disease, age-specific risks for complications, ability of persons of a certain age to respond to the vaccine, and potential interference with the immune response by passively transferred maternal antibody. Vaccines are recommended for members of the youngest age group at risk for experiencing the disease for whom efficacy and safety have been demonstrated.

Certain products, including inactivated vaccines, toxoids, recombinant subunit and polysaccharide conjugate vaccines, require administering >2 doses for development of an adequate and persisting antibody response. Tetanus and diphtheria toxoids require periodic reinforcement or booster doses to maintain protective antibody concentrations. Unconjugated polysaccharide vaccines do not induce T-cell memory, and booster doses are not expected to produce substantially increased protection. Conjugation with a protein carrier improves the effectiveness of polysaccharide vaccines by inducing T-cell--dependent immunologic function. Vaccines that stimulate both cell-mediated immunity and neutralizing antibodies (e.g., live attenuated virus vaccines) usually can induce prolonged, often lifelong immunity, even if antibody titers decline as time progresses (5). Subsequent exposure to infection usually does not lead to viremia but to a rapid anamnestic antibody response.

Approximately 90%--95% of recipients of a single dose of a parenterally administered live vaccine at the recommended age (i.e., measles, mumps, rubella [MMR], varicella, and yellow fever), develop protective antibody within 2 weeks of the dose. However, because a limited proportion of recipients (13 years fail to respond to the first dose of varicella vaccine; 99% of recipients seroconvert after two doses (8).

To view the full report, please use the following link:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5102a1.htm

Hoping this will be helpful,

Rafik

Thank you Rafik. Very useful information. I'm interested in a little bit more detail, particularly regarding immune correlates of protection for each vaccine.

Best reference I know of is the textbook "Vaccines," published by Elsevier.  Everything you need to know is in the book, and then some.  

Thank you Dr. Fisher, excellent resource! I've checked it out and it is on par with the level of detail I was looking for.

Cosmina, another excellent source of answers to your questions are the World Health Organization's Position Papers on each vaccine. They provide background epidemiology, describe natural immunity and correlates of the protective immune response where they are understood and evidence from efficacy trials that decisions on vaccine introductions and scheduling are based. 

http://www.who.int/immunization/documents/positionpapers/en/

Thank you very much, Dr. Adetifa! I will definitely read the WHO position papers as well. 

Please Cosmina can you share the "Vaccine" textbook recommended to you by Fisher.

This is my email: [email protected]

Thanks.