André F E
GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals, 89 rue de l'Institut, 1330, Rixensart, Belgium.
Vaccine. 2001 Mar 21;19(17-19):2206-9. doi: 10.1016/s0264-410x(00)00546-6.
Vaccines have prevented more deaths, disability and suffering than any other medical discovery or intervention. Recent breakthroughs in immunology and genomics offer the prospect of the development of many new prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines not only against infectious diseases but also for use in conditions such as allergy, autoimmunity and carcinogenesis where malfunction of the immune system undoubtedly plays a role. These hopeful perspectives are however dimmed by several counterproductive societal trends that include the spreading-although unjustified-belief that vaccines are not safe and may even be unnecessary, escalating costs of vaccine research, development, production and control that are exacerbated by political pressure on selling prices and expensive lawsuits by 'victims' of vaccination who claim excessive compensation. Negative media coverage of vaccine issues is adversely affecting acceptance of vaccination. In spite of these negative trends, vaccines should have a bright future, because it is increasingly being realised that prevention is not only better than cure but it is often also more cost-effective. A better understanding of the dynamics of microbial transmission in populations is leading to more rational immunisation practices on a global scale that could lead to eradication of several pathogens. Attention is being given to making vaccines more user-friendly through the development of combined vaccines and the introduction of less invasive inoculation techniques.
疫苗预防的死亡、残疾和痛苦比其他任何医学发现或干预措施都要多。免疫学和基因组学的最新突破为开发许多新型预防性和治疗性疫苗带来了希望，这些疫苗不仅可用于预防传染病，还可用于免疫系统功能失调无疑起作用的疾病，如过敏、自身免疫和癌症。然而，一些适得其反的社会趋势使这些充满希望的前景变得黯淡，这些趋势包括尽管毫无根据但却广泛传播的观点，即疫苗不安全甚至可能不必要；疫苗研究、开发、生产和控制成本不断攀升，而政治对售价的压力以及疫苗接种“受害者”索要高额赔偿的昂贵诉讼使这一情况更加恶化。媒体对疫苗问题的负面报道正在对疫苗接种的接受度产生不利影响。尽管存在这些负面趋势，但疫苗仍应拥有光明的未来，因为人们越来越认识到预防不仅优于治疗，而且往往更具成本效益。对人群中微生物传播动态的更好理解正在导致全球范围内更合理的免疫实践，这可能会根除几种病原体。人们正在关注通过开发联合疫苗和引入侵入性较小的接种技术，使疫苗更便于使用。
