We all know vaccines help us not get sick, but how exactly do they work and what progress are they making at preventing fatal sicknesses facing global population such as HIV, AIDS, malaria and the flu? A vaccine is, essentially, a cure for an illness or disease. Over the years through science and innovative technology, we have solved very serious sicknesses with them in which they help a body's immune system prepare in advance how to fight off infection. When a vaccine is injected, it gives a preview of the type or strand of bacterium (that cannot get you sick because it is dead or weakened) of a certain illness so that if ever infected with that pathogen, the body already has a first line of defense and knows how to invade and kill it off. The body has created "memory cells" that recognize it and give the antibodies directions of how to prevent the infectious bacteria from getting out. Vaccines have changed the health of our world and kept hundreds of millions of people alive and well. In today's world, especially in underdeveloped countries, malaria, AIDS, and other pandemics have wiped out populations and socially and economically set up countries for failure. In America, epidemiologists like Seth Berkley, who talked at the TED convention in Long Beach, California February of 2010, gave us insight to new vaccines being tested that could solve the issues to these diseases. After watching the video, i have learned that smart advances of vaccines are being made and put into action, like in Thailand, that show a vaccine they have created for AIDS, is possible and effective. Although there is still a lot of room for improvement and adjustments to be made, it excites me to know that possibilities to save more people are being made. Specifically, Berkley fundamentally proves the procedure to making this vaccine by stating, "The Thai results tell us we can make an AIDS vaccine, and the antibody findingstell us how we might do that. This strategy, working backwards from an antibody to create a vaccine candidate,has never been done before in vaccine research. It's called retro-vaccinology, and its implications extend way beyond that of just HIV. So think of it this way. We've got these new antibodies we've identified, and we know that they latch onto many, many variations of the virus. We know that they have to latch onto a specific part, so if we can figure out the precise structure of that part, present that through a vaccine, what we hope is we can promptyour immune system to make these matching antibodies. And that would create a universal HIV vaccine".The question is, will they ever get that "perfect" vaccine and when will it actually be able to be distributed? Production to getting these vaccines to the developing world must be quick and exploitable. If we set up distribution stations in the countries we are targeting, we give a chance at helping populations quickly and cost efficiently. The answers and science are there, so creating a stop to illness epidemics for good is not something we can only dream of.
For more information on Seth Berkley or to watch the TED Talk, visit this website:
The Vaccine Strategy
