Brief Review on Active Immunization

Abstract

Vaccination is a term used for the prevention of diseases through the administration of live or killed antigens. A vaccine is modified organism or product. The vaccine gives adequate and long-lasting immunity against the disease. It should be safe, effective and should generate memory. The proposed vaccine may be available as monovalent/combination, single dose/multi-dose, and liquid/lyophilized. A number of issues need to be considered while choosing the presentation/formulation. These include current and proposed immunization schedule, number of injections per visit, cold storage space, vaccine wastage, injection safety equipment, staff training and supervision, recording and reporting mechanisms, and program costs. Live vaccines stimulate the B cells into producing antibodies. There are various types of vaccine live, killed, polysaccharide, synthetic, and recombinant vaccines. This is important for developing countries, where cost needs to be considered. Newer vaccines are available, for which the feasibility and the efficacy needs to be evaluated. These can be incorporated only after evaluations.