PhD Thesis Presentation-2017.pdf (original) (raw)

Controlling Infectious Diseases through Vaccination

2014

Infectious diseases continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality in both animals and humans. Indeed, every year infectious diseases cost the global economy billions of dollars in losses and are responsible for approximately one-third of all human deaths. These deaths occur from routine infections, hospital acquired infections (approximately 100,000 deaths occur annually in North America due to hospital-acquired infections), occasional pandemics or regional outbreaks. The most recent regional outbreak is Ebola in West Africa. This infection has caused significant challenges for the regional health care commu nity and has had a global impact. The challenge in the control of infectious diseases is not only due to routine infections but also to the continued emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases. These new threats occur on a regular basis with approximately thirty new emerging or re-emerging diseases recorded in the last thirty years. The majority of these emerging ...

CSCI/RCPSC Henry Friesen lecture: controlling infectious diseases through vaccination

Clinical and investigative medicine. Médecine clinique et experimentale, 2014

Infectious diseases continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality in both animals and humans. Indeed, every year infectious diseases cost the global economy billions of dollars in losses and are responsible for approximately one-third of all human deaths. These deaths occur from routine infections, hospital acquired infections (approximately 100,000 deaths occur annually in North America due to hospital-acquired infections), occasional pandemics or regional outbreaks. The most recent regional outbreak is Ebola in West Africa. This infection has caused significant challenges for the regional health care community and has had a global impact. The challenge in the control of infectious diseases is not only due to routine infections but also to the continued emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases. These new threats occur on a regular basis with approximately thirty new emerging or re-emerging diseases recorded in the last thirty years. The majority of these emerging d...

The re-emergency and persistence of vaccine preventable diseases

Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 2015

The introduction of vaccination worldwide dramatically reduced the incidence of pathogenic bacterial and viral diseases. Despite the highly successful vaccination strategies, the number of cases among vaccine preventable diseases has increased in the last decade and several of those diseases are still endemic in different countries. Here we discuss some epidemiological aspects and possible arguments that may explain why ancient diseases such as, measles, polio, pertussis, diphtheria and tuberculosis are still with us.

Global control of infectious diseases by vaccination programs

Birkhäuser Advances in Infectious Diseases

In both industrialized and developing countries, childhood immunization has become one of the most important and cost-effective public health interventions. National immunization programs have prevented millions of deaths since WHO initiated the 'Expanded Program on Immunization' in 1974. Smallpox was eradicated in 1979, poliomyelitis is on the verge of eradication, and two thirds of developing countries have eliminated neonatal tetanus. Global immunization coverage was at 78% in 2005. Through their impact on childhood morbidity and mortality, immunization programs are contributing to reaching the 'Millennium Development Goal 4'-a two-thirds reduction of under-five mortality by 2015. However, the failure to reach more than 20% of the world's children with existing vaccines was responsible for at least 2.5 million of an estimated 10.5 million deaths of children under 5 years, mainly in developing countries. Of these deaths, 1.4 million could have been prevented by vaccines currently recommended by WHO. Rapid progress in our understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, immunology, and biotechnology has increased the number of candidate vaccine antigens available. Pressures are growing on public health decision makers to establish evidence-based ways to decide which new vaccines should be introduced on a large scale into national immunization programs. The gap in access to new vaccines between the developing and industrialized worlds is still wide, and wealthy countries are still the first to introduce and use new vaccines. Interest from countries and partner agencies in vaccination, as one of the most cost-effective public health interventions, continues to be strong, also due to rapid progress in biotechnology and vaccine development and the emergence of global infectious disease threats, including HIV/AIDS, SARS, and influenza. The establishment of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization has focused global activities to support vaccination programs through raising considerable funds, and to assist especially poorer countries in improving and expanding their vaccination programs. Global efforts concentrate on further reducing the gap in the access to all existing vaccines between industrialized and developing countries.