Vacunas virales: logros y desafíos / Viral vaccines: achievements and challenges

In this review the present state of vaccination as an means to control viral diseases is discussed, and the needs and directions for future investigations are considered. The history of viral vaccines already in use is surveyed for guidance in what steps and background knowledge of the viral agents and the host responsess to infection were necesary to their successful development. The steps requisite for demonstrating efficacy and safety of a viral vaccine also are summarized, and the features of the target populations to be protected are noted as they affect the final requirement for a successful vaccine: that it be administered in proper dosage and potency to those who need. it. General remarks on the proper use of current vaccines are followed by an overiview of various developments toward prospective vaccines, along with the predicated time-frames for their coming into general use. Vaccines considered include vaccines to be administered locally at the portal of entry, subunit vaccines, viruses attenuated by genetic manipulation, use of viral vectors, vaccines developed by means of recombinant DNA, synthetic peptides, and anti-idiotype vaccines, as well as new vaccines being developed by more conventional methods

Vacunas virales: logros y desafíos / Viral vaccines: achievements and challenges

In this review the present state of vaccination as an means to control viral diseases is discussed, and the needs and directions for future investigations are considered. The history of viral vaccines already in use is surveyed for guidance in what steps and background knowledge of the viral agents and the host responsess to infection were necesary to their successful development. The steps requisite for demonstrating efficacy and safety of a viral vaccine also are summarized, and the features of the target populations to be protected are noted as they affect the final requirement for a successful vaccine: that it be administered in proper dosage and potency to those who need. it. General remarks on the proper use of current vaccines are followed by an overiview of various developments toward prospective vaccines, along with the predicated time-frames for their coming into general use. Vaccines considered include vaccines to be administered locally at the portal of entry, subunit vaccines, viruses attenuated by genetic manipulation, use of viral vectors, vaccines developed by means of recombinant DNA, synthetic peptides, and anti-idiotype vaccines, as well as new vaccines being developed by more conventional methods (AU)

WHO collaborative study on the sero-epidemiology of rubella

Under the auspices of WHO an investigation was made by 9 laboratories in different parts of the world on the distribution of rubella antibodies in girls and women of child-bearing age. In the first part of the study the objective was to determine the reliability and reproducibility of the tests employed. It was found that there was no significant differences in the variability of the titres obtained by repeatedly testing the same sera in one laboratory. In the second part of the study sera were obtained from girls in schools and women attending clinics and health centres. They were not taken from random samples of the populations. In most of the studies the pattern of development of antibody was similar. About half the persons had antibody at 6-8 years of age and 80 percent-87 percent at 17-22 years of age, the percentage remaining relatively constant thereafter. The island populations of Trinidad and Jamaica and a rural area of Japan were, however, found to have significantly fewer women with antibodies than urban areas in Europe or the Americas.(AU)