Benefits of vaccines to global health

Maite Sainz

Early Stage Researcher 12, University College Dublin

April 2020

Blog 1.png

The last century has shown that vaccination is one of the most effective measures in public health. The first scientific attempt to control an infectious disease by the deliberate use of vaccination was performed by Edward Jenner, when he developed the first vaccine against smallpox in 1976 (1–4). After Jenner´s discovery, vaccinology evolved to become a complex multidisciplinary science that in the last years has enabled the licensure of vaccines that were technically impossible decades ago (3). The following summarizes some of the main benefits that vaccines have brought to human public health.

1. Decrease of human mortality and morbidity: Vaccines' most famous achievement is smallpox eradication. Smallpox was a  disease responsible for 8-20% of all deaths in several European countries during the 18th century (5).  Vaccinology is the only science that has made the eradication of an infectious disease possible, which means it is one of the greatest accomplishments ever made by humanity. Furthermore, the burden of many diseases as  polio, tetanus, diphtheria, TB and measles has decreased due to vaccines (6).  

Vaccination saves at least 2–3 million lives per year worldwide (6,7). For example, polio has almost disappeared due to global vaccine campaigns. In Japan, with a polio´s vaccine coverage of 90–97%,  cases  of polio fell  from 1000 - 5000 per year to zero for more than two decades(8). Furthermore, among children born in the USA between 1994 and 2013, vaccination will prevent an estimated of 322 million illnesses, 21 million hospitalizations, and 732,000 deaths over the course of their lifetimes. Vaccines have enabled an increase in the life expectancy in the USA from 47.3, in 1900, to 78.7 currently (9–11). Hence, vaccines have contributed considerably to the decrease of human mortality, particularly child mortality, and to the spectacular increase in life expectancy in the last two centuries.

2. Treatment or prevention of non-infectious diseases: Recent years have brought the opportunity to develop therapeutic vaccines for the control of chronic diseases or cancer, which, although promising, are mostly still in clinical trials (12). It is also important to highlight the vaccines against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) that have helped in the prevention of cervical cancer, or the vaccine against Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) for liver cancer prevention (7).

3. Cost-effectiveness: Vaccination has been able to demonstrate its cost-effectiveness, a key to its progress and acceptance. For example, it is estimated that the eradication of smallpox, which costs roughly 100 million USD in total, generates annual savings of 1.35 billion USD (8). 

4. Indirect effects: It has been observed that vaccines have reduced antimicrobial resistance by reducing the need for antibiotics (9). And from a social perspective, vaccines have provided a healthier childhood which is linked to better educational performance and higher earnings later in life. The World Health Organization (WHO) concludes that vaccines can achieve broad societal gains more easily than any other medical intervention (8).

Vaccines have been one of the most effective interventions to improve global health and represent a promising future for the treatment of infectious and non-infectious diseases such as cancer. However, there are still many challenges. Approximately 1.5 million children die every year from vaccine-preventable diseases, and only 1 child out of 20 has access to all 11 WHO-recommended vaccines (3). Therefore, developing novel and efficacious vaccines, and providing access to them for the population worldwide must be a global commitment.  

References

1.         D’Argenio DA, Wilson CB. A decade of vaccines: Integrating immunology and vaccinology for rational vaccine design. Immunity. 2010; 33(4): 437–40.

2.         Greenwood B. The contribution of vaccination to global health: past, present and future. Philos Trans R Soc B Biol Sci. 2014; 369(1645): 20130433.

3.         Rappuoli R, Santoni A, Mantovani A. Vaccines: An achievement of civilization, a human right, our health insurance for the future. J Exp Med. 2019; 216(1): 7–9.

4.         Riedel S. Edward Jenner and the history of smallpox and vaccination. In: Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings. Taylor & Francis; 2005; 21–5.

5.         Henderson DA. The eradication of smallpox–an overview of the past, present, and future. Vaccine. 2011; 29: D7–9.

6.         André FE. Vaccinology: past achievements, present roadblocks and future promises. Vaccine [Internet]. 2003; 21(7): 593–5. Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X02007028.

7.         Delany I, Rappuoli R, De Gregorio E. Vaccines for the 21st century. EMBO Mol Med [Internet]. 2014/04/06. 2014; 6(6): 708–20. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24803000.

8.         Doherty M, Buchy P, Standaert B, Giaquinto C, Prado-Cohrs D. Vaccine impact: benefits for human health. Vaccine. 2016; 34(52): 6707–14.

9.         Whitney CG, Zhou F, Singleton J, Schuchat A, (CDC) C for DC and P. Benefits from immunization during the vaccines for children program era - United States, 1994-2013. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep [Internet]. 2014; 63(16): 352–5. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24759657.

10.       Van Panhuis WG, Grefenstette J, Jung SY, Chok NS, Cross A, Eng H, et al. Contagious diseases in the United States from 1888 to the present. N Engl J Med [Internet]. 2013; 369(22): 2152–8. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24283231.

11.       Rappuoli R, Pizza M, Del Giudice G, De Gregorio E. Vaccines, new opportunities for a new society. Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2014; 111(34): 12288–93.

12.       Melero I, Gaudernack G, Gerritsen W, Huber C, Parmiani G, Scholl S, et al. Therapeutic vaccines for cancer: an overview of clinical trials. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 2014; 11(9): 509.

 

 

Recent Tweets from BactiVax

Congratulations to #BactiVax researchers @irenejm6, @maite_s96 and Assoc. Prof. Siobhán McClean on their recently published review on Pseudomonas aeruginosa #vaccine development! 🦠 P. aeruginosa is an antibiotic-resistant, hospital-acquired pathogen that can cause severe and difficult to treat infections. Link to open access paper here & in bio: https://t.co/l1y9Ugh5Sj?amp=1
🧪⚗ #EuropeanResearchersNight is here! Make sure to check some of the #cool #science events organised across Europe today, especially the @meetmetonight20 event in Milan, as #BactiVax will be there. Tonight @5pm CET & tomorrow @4pm CET, we'll have interactive sessions on #vaccine discovery, held by our Project 6 Researcher @_ritafranco and Prof. Francesco Peri @unimib. 🗒 Free registration: meetmetonight.it/programma/
We'd like to welcome Ana Rita, the newest addition to the #BactiVax team, who comes from Portugal 🇵🇹 and will be hosted at @unimib in Milan, Italy. 👩‍🔬🧪 Her research project focuses on the development of new vaccine adjuvants, using a medicinal chemistry approach. @_ritafranco . . . . #VaccinesWork #chemistry #research #EUfunded #mariesklodowskacurieactions
BactiVax - Siobhán McClean