This document discusses the significance of vaccines, their types, and the concept of herd immunity in preventing infectious diseases and their complications.
Extract
[...] One of the advantages of herd immunity is indeed to allow stopping the spread of an infectious agent to almost completely eliminate certain diseases. V. Benefit of Vaccination for the Community - For example, for measles, in document 2 in annex, the number of deaths related to this disease decreased from 2 to 3 million per year worldwide before vaccination to 20 deaths between 2008 and 2017 in France alone. For people affected by measles, the complications described in document 2A in annex present degrees of severity that are in no way comparable to the side effects of vaccines (notably those described in document 3 in annex). [...]
[...] Document 3 in annex indicates, for example, that influenza is responsible for 1 to 10 deaths per 10,000 in non-vaccinated groups compared to 0 deaths in groups with sufficient vaccination coverage. However, document 2E in annex shows that collective immunity is only achieved at a certain threshold of vaccination coverage. Despite good vaccination coverage in France against measles or smallpox, the thresholds for collective immunity, for example 95% for measles, are not met: it was 80% in 2017 according to document 2C in annex. [...]
[...] What is the interest of preventive vaccination? I. The different vaccines currently existing The vaccines currently existing can be classified according to the or the active principles they contain, as indicated in document 1 in annex. These active principles can be different biological agents, for example : - of live attenuated infectious agents : active principles of ROR, - of inactivated infectious agents : pertussis vaccine, - only the antigens of infectious agents (subunit vaccines) : tetanus or hepatitis B vaccines, - fragments of DNA coding for the antigens of the infectious agent, or fragments of messenger RNA as for the anti-Covid vaccine. [...]
[...] This can have significant effects in terms of certain infections that can have serious consequences for individuals: preventing severe complications of measles (document 2A in the appendix: between 2008 and 2017 in France deaths among the 20 recorded cases involved unvaccinated individuals against measles) or HPV viruses or hepatitis which can induce cervical cancer or liver cancer respectively (document c of the textbook). III. Usefulness of adjuvants In documents d and e of the textbook, it is observed that certain adjuvants can be incorporated into vaccine preparations: for example, alum, magnesium hydroxide, and/or aluminum hydroxide (in the Revaxis vaccine, for example). It is indicated that these adjuvants stimulate a non-specific immune response. [...]
