Seven million children, under the age of 5, die every year as the result of infectious diseases.  Nintey-nine percent of those children live in developing countries around the world. (1)  The urgency for vaccine development to prevent the spread of numerous infectious diseases in the Third World can not be emphasized enough.  The numbers of individuals that die each year as a result of diseases for which no vaccine exists continues to grow and existing vaccines are often inadequately distributed to the poorest countries.  The health costs of treatment for individuals suffering from infectious disease continue to be an increasing burden on countries around the world.  The allocation of resources for the treatment of patients who contract diseases such as HIV, rotavirus, measles, Haemophilus Influenza, and pneumococcus, divert resources from urgent development of economic stability and growth towards the care of infected individuals.

Research for the development these vaccines is primarily conducted in industrialized nations; while the vaccines themselves have the greatest impact on the social, economic, and political development of Third World nations.  This means that the process of vaccine development is a unique compromise between the economic, political, and ethical priorities of the industrialized country where the vaccine is developed and the developing country where it is needed the most.  This web-site discusses a number of the key issues that relate to vaccine development and dissemination.  It also presents case studies for the five diseases mentioned above, for which vaccines are in varying stages of development and use.  We hope to emphasize the adage that "vaccines do not save lives, but vaccination does".

This page was developed by:
Pari Shah (Pari_Shah@brown.edu)
Ann Juergens-Behr (Ann_Juergens-Behr@brown.edu)

We would be happy to receive your feedback on this site.
 

Notice:

This web site was developed by undergraduate students at Brown University as a project for a course in vaccine development (Bio 160). An effort has been made to present information on the prevalent opinions available at this time.  References to published articles and acknowledgements of other sources are cited in the text.  The authors of this web site are not certified medical professionals.  Biomedical research and clinical medicine are constantly evolving fields, thus it is possible that significant advances in research and treatments will come into existence following posting of this web site.