PAHO vaccines books wins major award

The Pan American Health Organization’s publication, Vaccines: Preventing Disease and Protecting Health, has won an award from the Association of American Publishers in the medical science category.

The award, presented today at the annual conference of the group’s Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division, is given “to acknowledge excellence in book, journal and electronic publishing in all the disciplines represented by professional, scholarly and reference publishing.”

The publication, edited by Dr. Ciro A. de Quadros, recounts the various ways vaccines have played a role in improving the health of the world’s populations, ranging from early efforts against yellow fever at the turn of the century to the eradication of smallpox and polio from the Americas to the challenges of vaccines for emerging and re-emerging diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and malaria.

PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses said in a preface to the book that eradication programs begun in the Americas “have made our region a model and inspiration for the rest of the world. The Expanded Program on Immunization has made invaluable contributions in terms of social mobilization and community participation, and it has left behind lasting lessons in developing models and tools for interagency cooperation.”

The use of vaccines against potential bioterrorism attacks is also discussed, with a particular emphasis on smallpox and anthrax. Regulatory and safety issues related to vaccines are presented from the perspectives of the public sector, the pharmaceutical industry, and the vaccine consumer.

New concepts for vaccine development, adjuvants and delivery systems such as maternal immunization, DNA vaccines, and oral vaccines derived from transgenic plants are also discussed, and the book’s final chapter highlights the ongoing challenges of vaccine development, disease prevention, internal and external financing and sustainability of immunization programs, and the impact of health sector reform on these issues.