What are Vaccines?

A substance used to stimulate the

production of antibodies and provide
immunity against one or several
diseases, prepared from the causative
agent of a disease, its products or a
synthetic substitute treated to act as an
antigen without inducing the disease.
A vaccine typically contains an agent that
resembles a disease-causing
microorganism and is often made from
weakened or killed forms of the microbe,
its toxins, or one of its surface proteins.
History of Vaccines
The story of vaccines did not begin with
the first vaccine - Edward Jenner’s use of
material from cowpox pustules to provide
protection against smallpox. Rather, it
begins with the long history of infectious
disease in humans and in particular, with
early uses of small pox material to provide
immunity to that disease.
 Evidence exists that the Chinese employed
smallpox inoculation as early as 1000 CE. It was
practiced in Africa and Turkey as well, before
it spread to Europe and the Americas.

Edward Jenner’s innovations, begun with his

successful 1796 use of cowpox material to create
immunity to smallpox, quickly made the practice
widespread. His method underwent medical and
technological changes over the next 200 years,
and eventually resulted in the eradication of
small pox.
 Louis Pasteur’s 1885 rabies vaccine was the
next to make an impact on human disease. And
then, at the dawn of bacteriology, developments
rapidly followed. Antitoxins and vaccines
against diphtheria, tetanus, anthrax, cholera,
plague, typhoid, tuberculosis and more were
developed through the 1930’s.
Innovative techniques now drive vaccine
research, with recombinant DNA technology and
new delivery techniques leading scientists in
new directions. Disease targets have expanded,
and some vaccine research is beginning to and
some vaccine research is beginning to focus on
non-infectious conditions such as addiction and
allergies.
Main Types of
Vaccines

Live-attenuated VACCINE
 Use a weakened (or attenuated)
form the germ that causes a disease
 So similar to the natural infection
that they help prevent, they create a
strong and long-lasting immune
response. Just 1 or 2 doses of most
live vaccines can give a lifetime of
protection against a germ and the
disease it causes.

Live vaccines are used to protect against:

- Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR combined vaccine)
 - Rotavirus
- Smallpox
- Chickenpox
- Yellow Fever

Inactivated vaccines
 Use the killed version of the germ
that causes a disease.
 Usually don’t provide immunity
(protection) that’s as strong as live
 vaccines. So you may neeedseveral
doses over time (booster shots) in
order to get ongoing immunity against
diseases.

Inactivated Vaccines are used to protect against:

- Hepatitis A
- Flu (shot only)
- Polio (shot only)
- Rabies
Subunit, recombinant,
polysaccharide and conjugate
vaccines
 Use specific pieces of the germ like
its protein, sugar or capsid (a casing
around the germ).
 They give a very strong immune
response that’s targeted to key parts
of the germ.
 Can also be used on almost
everyone who needs them including
people with weakened immune
systems and long-term health
problems.
These vaccines are used to protect against:
- HIB (Haemophilus Influenzae Type B) Disease
- Hepatitis B
- HPV (Human Papillomavirus)
- Whooping Cough
- Pneumococcal Disease
- Meningococcal Disease
- Shingles

Toxoid vaccines
  Use a toxin (harmful product) made
by the germ that causes a disease.
 They create immunity to the parts of
the germ that cause a disease instead
of the germ itself. That means the
immune response is targeted to the
toxin instead of the whole germ.

Toxoid vaccines are used to protect against:

- Diphtheria
- Tetanus
Common side effects of any vaccine can include:
 Injection site reactions (pain, swelling, redness)
 Mild fever
 Shivering
 Fatigue
 Headache
 Muscle and Joint pain