New & Hot - Review: Vaccines, Global Health and Social Equity

This review in Nature included useful general information on the role of vaccines in increasing the standard of living.

The article begins with the premise that 100 years ago, New York City was the statistical equivalent of many of today's developing countries: high infant morbidity and mortality rates, low life expectancies and high infectious disease rates.

Notable excerpts include:

"...the four leading causes of young child mortality in the developing world, including lower respiratory infections (pneumonias and bronchiolitis), infectious diarrhea, malaria and measles, are in part preventable by immunization with existing vaccines or vaccines that are currently in development"

The article also briefly refers to the EPI (Expanded Programme on Immunization) and the "cold chain," which "allows vaccines to be transported from central and district refrigerated storage facilities to the point of use without spoilage due to excess heat or freezing."

http://www.nature.com/icb/journal/v87/n4/full/icb200915a.html

Elaine Su