He is former Chair of the Association for Paediatric Immunology and current Chair of the advisory board of the ‘Preventive Medicine in Paediatrics’ Foundation. Professor Zepp is also a member of the scientific advisory board of the German Medical Association and last

year was buy Navitoclax appointed President of the German Society of Paediatric and Adolescent Medicine. He has published more than 100 original papers and reviews. Figure options Download full-size image Download as PowerPoint slide “
“Key concepts ■ Vaccines have made the second most major contribution to the control and eradication of infectious diseases after the distribution of clean water Vaccines have dramatically improved human health. The steady decline in deaths in children under Ganetespib 5 years of age is attributable to the increasing

availability of vaccines in the developing world. A growing knowledge of immunology has increasingly influenced vaccine design in the past century, leading to the production of new types of vaccines (whole cell, live or inactivated, subunit, recombinant proteins etc) with associated advantages and challenges. In addition, public health priorities have evolved over time. The first vaccines were developed against diseases with high morbidity and mortality rates, such as smallpox, diphtheria and tetanus. In addition, ‘battlefield diseases’ – particularly in the era of trench warfare – including typhoid fever, plague and cholera, drove the development of early vaccines. More recently, the drivers for vaccine development Oxalosuccinic acid have changed, reflecting changes in global society. Although highly pathogenic infectious diseases remain the principal targets for effective vaccination, assessments of benefit versus risk and consideration of health economics

are now an obligatory part of the development process. Better understanding of immunology and pathogenesis of the targeted diseases facilitates identification of the type and quality of immune responses that are desirable for each new prophylactic or therapeutic vaccine. In December 1979, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the eradication of smallpox following successful vaccination campaigns throughout the previous two centuries. Another disease presently close to eradication is polio (Figure 1.1). The WHO declared that the Americas were polio-free in 1994, followed by the Western Pacific region in 2000 and the European region in 2002. In the past 20 years, polio cases have decreased from an estimated 350,000 annual cases to 1640 cases in 23 countries in 2009, the majority of which (69%) occurred in Nigeria and India. In the ancient world, it was common knowledge that a person was rarely infected twice with the same disease and the term ‘immunity’ was first used in reference to plague in the 14th century.