Immunization
W. M. McDonnell and F. K. Askari
Immunization is undergoing important changes, with improved vaccines
replacing less immunogenic or less safe vaccines, new vaccines for common
diseases such as chickenpox and hepatitis A infection, and improved
immunization schedules. Immunization is also being transformed by basic
work in molecular medicine. Vaccines made of DNA are being developed as a
form of gene therapy that use the patient's own cellular machinery to make
foreign proteins that stimulate an immune response. Currently immunization
is used to protect patients prior to exposure to an infectious agent or
during the incubation phase after exposure, but before disease has
occurred. New technologies are being investigated to induce the immune
system to fight infections that have already produced chronic disease such
as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and chronic hepatitis B virus
infection.
