Different Types of Vaccinations in 2024

Over the past 80 years, a variety of vaccines have been developed to protect us against different diseases. These vaccines work in different ways to help our bodies fight off infections. In 2024, the global landscape of vaccinations has seen remarkable advancements. As the world continues to strive towards combating infectious diseases and bolstering public health infrastructure, access to a diverse range of vaccines has become increasingly important. Let’s delve into the main types of vaccines in 2024 and their importance.

Table of Contents

• The Importance of Vaccinations
• The Benefits of Vaccines
• Vaccine Types
• Inactivated vaccines
• Conclusion

The Importance of Vaccinations

Vaccinations are an exceptionally important aspect of good health, offering significant benefits for individuals, communities and society as a whole. They work by stimulating the immune system to recognise and combat infectious diseases. Vaccines prevent illness, disability and other serious complications caused by a wide range of pathogens. They not only protect the vaccinated individuals from serious diseases, but also contribute to reducing the spread of infections within communities and protecting those at highest risk of severe illness if infected, even if they are not vaccinated themselves. People at highest risk of severe infection and death from infectious diseases include infants, elderly individuals and people with certain medical conditions. Vaccinations have played a crucial role in controlling and eradicating infectious diseases throughout history, leading to dramatic reductions in morbidity and mortality worldwide.

The Benefits of Vaccines

Vaccines offer many benefits that go beyond individual protection, significantly impacting public health on a global scale. Firstly, vaccines effectively prevent the spread of infectious diseases, reducing the incidence of illness, disability and mortality or morbidity caused by pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. By stimulating the body’s immune response to recognise and combat these pathogens, vaccines provide long-lasting immunity, helping to control outbreaks and pandemics, such as COVID-19. Additionally, vaccines contribute to “herd immunity”, which means a significant portion of the population becomes immune to a disease, thereby protecting those who are not vaccinated or cannot be vaccinated due to medical reasons. This collective immunity helps to curb the transmission of diseases within communities and ultimately prevents their resurgence. Vaccines have also been instrumental in eradicating or drastically reducing the prevalence of life-threatening diseases, including smallpox and polio.

Vaccine Types

There are several different types of vaccines available today with each type “teaching” the immune system how to fight off certain kinds of bacteria and viruses as well as diseases they can cause. When developing vaccines, it is important to consider how the immune system responds to the pathogen and who needs to be vaccinated against it.

There are several types of vaccines, including:

• Inactivated vaccines
• Live-attenuated vaccines
• Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines
• Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines
• Toxoid vaccines
• Viral vector vaccines

We’ll now delve into each vaccine type, how they are made, what they do, and what illnesses or diseases they protect against.

Inactivated vaccines

Inactivated vaccines use the killed version of the pathogen that causes a disease and usually doesn’t provide immunity (protection) that’s as strong as live vaccines. Vaccinations against infectious diseases may be given as single doses, once only, or more commonly as a series of doses given over time (sometimes referred to as booster shots) in order to develop ongoing immunity against diseases.

Inactivated Vaccines:

Some vaccines contain inactivated particles of infecting organisms which are totally incapable of causing infection.

Examples of inactivated vaccines are :

• Hepatitis A
• Influenza
• Polio
• Rabies

Live-attenuated vaccines

Live vaccines use a weakened or “attenuated” form of the infecting organism that causes a disease. Because these vaccines are so similar to the natural infection that they help prevent, they create a strong and long-lasting immune response. Just one or two doses of most live vaccines can provide lifetime protection against a disease. However, because they are live organisms, they have the potential to cause mild symptoms similar to the disease itself as they go about developing the person’s immunity. These types of vaccines are not suited to everyone. For example, people with weakened immune systems and chronic or long-term health conditions may not be given certain vaccines as they could potentially make them unwell. A person whose immune system is suppressed for whatever reason should consult their own doctor before undergoing vaccination.

Live vaccines protect against:

• Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR combined vaccine)
• Rotavirus
• Smallpox
• Chickenpox
• Yellow fever

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines

These are the newest types of vaccines. They lead to the creation of proteins similar to the proteins on the surface of the infecting virus, and the protein triggers the development of immunity. The mRNA vaccines have several benefits compared to other types of vaccines, including faster manufacturing and, as they do not contain a live virus, there is no risk of causing disease in the person being vaccinated.

mRNA vaccines protect against:

• COVID-19

Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines

Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide and conjugate vaccines use specific components of the infecting organism such as its protein, sugar or capsid (a casing around the organism). Unlike live or attenuated vaccines, they can be used on almost everyone who needs them, including people with weakened immune systems and long-term health concerns. This type of vaccine may also require booster shots to ensure continued immunity.

These vaccines protect against:

• Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) disease
• Hepatitis B
• HPV (human papillomavirus)
• Whooping cough (part of the DTaP combined vaccine)
• Pneumococcal disease
• Meningococcal disease
• Shingles

Toxoid vaccines

Toxoid vaccines make use of the toxin or poison that is made by the infecting organism that causes a disease. In doing so, they create immunity to the harmful poison produced by the organism which actually causes the symptoms and signs of the disease instead of the infecting organism itself. Like other types of vaccines, you may need booster shots for ongoing protection against diseases.

Toxoid vaccines protect against:

• Diphtheria
• Tetanus

Viral vector vaccines

Viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different non-harmful virus as a vector or transporter to deliver protection against the virus that needs to be prevented. Several different viruses have been used as vectors over the past several years, including influenza, vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), measles virus and adenovirus, which causes the common cold. A number of studies have focused on developing viral vector vaccines against other infectious diseases such as Zika and HIV. Scientists have used this technology to make some of the COVID-19 vaccines as well. Adenovirus is one of the viral vectors used in some COVID-19 vaccines.

Currently, viral vector vaccines protect against:

• COVID-19

Conclusion

Vaccines and immunisation are pivotal in maintaining good health, in protecting yourself, your family and your friends as well as those people who are unable to be vaccinated for other medical reasons. People who are vaccinated play a big part in lessening the burden on healthcare systems.
So don’t be shy, get vaccinated!

For more information, please contact:

Dr B Malone
Discipline: Family Physician
Hospital: Bokamoso Private Hospital
Telephone: +267 369 4222