Vaccine

A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms that it later encounters.

Aluminum in Vaccines: Mechanisms, Myths, and Safety Data

This article explains how aluminum adjuvants work in vaccines, their proven safety record, and addresses common myths and scientific findings. It also highlights new developments in vaccine adjuvant technology and the ongoing need for rigorous monitoring.

The Essential Program on Immunization is 50: Milestones, achievements, and future directions

What are Nanoparticle-Based Vaccines?

Plant-Derived Vaccines

What is a Subunit Vaccine?

What is an Inactivated Vaccine?

What is a Toxoid Vaccine?

What is an RNA Vaccine?

Vaccine Immunity

Investigating the Importance of Investing in Vaccine Manufacturing

What are the Different Types of Vaccines?

What are Vaccines?

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What the Newest mRNA Vaccines Could Do Beyond COVID

Vaccination in Humanitarian Settings

Immunization strategies: What lessons can we learn from successful campaigns?

Role of Computer Modeling in Vaccine Development

What is a DNA Vaccine?

Vaccine Production

Vaccine Delivery

What is Immunobridging?

The Future of Vaccines

Hib Immunization

What is a VLP Vaccine?

Vaccine Effectiveness

A New Breed of Vaccine: Exploring Doggybone ™ DNA Technology

Transforming Vaccine Design: The Promise of Systems Biology

What is a Vaccine Breakthrough?

What is a Non-Replicating Vaccine?

How are Vaccines Stored?

The Big Catch-Up: How the COVID-19 pandemic impacted vaccination coverage

How Veterinary Vaccines Affect Human Health

Vaccine History

What are the Main Causes of Vaccine Hesitancy?

Vaccine Excipients

What is a Live-Attenuated Vaccine?

Vaccine Schedule

What are Adenovirus-Based Vaccines?

Could there be a Salmonella Vaccine?

Insight into Personalized Vaccines

What is the Importance of Vaccination Coverage?

History of Vaccination

Latest Vaccine News and Research

Tracking antibodies reveals four distinct COVID-19 vaccine responses

Two healthcare workers get COVID-19 vaccinations on the same day. Both show strong antibody responses initially, but six months later one stays healthy while the other contracts the virus. A new study published in Science Translational Medicine could help explain this difference.

18 Sep 2025

Watch: Fired CDC chief says RFK Jr. demanded she roll back vaccine policies without evidence

Susan Monarez, the former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testified before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Sept. 17 in her first public remarks since she was fired.

17 Sep 2025

AI breakthrough offers a new way to predict and visualize disease processes

To solve a problem, we have to see it clearly. Whether it's an infection by a novel virus or memory-stealing plaques forming in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, visualizing disease processes in the body is the first step toward alleviating human suffering. It's also often the most difficult and costly.

16 Sep 2025

RFK Jr.’s vaccine panel expected to recommend delaying hepatitis B shot for children

A key federal vaccine advisory panel whose members were recently replaced by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to vote to recommend delaying until age 4 the hepatitis B vaccine that's currently given to newborns, according to two former senior Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials.

16 Sep 2025

Philippines unveils new technologies to detect and manage African Swine Fever

Three new technologies to detect and manage African Swine Fever have been unveiled in the Philippines amid ongoing concerns about a vaccine imported from Vietnam.

15 Sep 2025

Rwanda confronts a surprising surge in malaria

After years of progress in reducing malaria cases, Rwanda is confronting a surprising resurgence and signs of treatment resistance that have forced officials to revisit vaccine intervention the country once declined.

15 Sep 2025

RSV vaccine slashes hospitalizations in older adults in real-world trial

A large, real-world randomized trial in Denmark found that the RSVpreF vaccine reduced RSV-related hospitalizations in adults aged 60 and over by over 80%. The vaccine also showed protection against broader respiratory illness with a favorable safety profile.

15 Sep 2025

Survey: Public support for MMR vaccine requirements in schools rises to 70%

Although Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted on social media in April that the "most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine," in a CBS News interview that month he said, "The federal government's position, my position, is that people should get the measles vaccine, but the government should not be mandating it."

13 Sep 2025

Waning Japanese encephalitis immunity linked to more severe dengue illness

Scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School, in collaboration with researchers in Nepal, have found that waning immunity to Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) may increase the risk of more severe dengue disease in humans.

13 Sep 2025

WHO publishes global statistics highlighting cholera outbreaks and deaths in 2024

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published its global cholera statistics for 2024, showing an increase in both the number of people who fell sick and died from the disease.

13 Sep 2025

School closures during COVID created massive long-term costs with limited health benefits

School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic imposed enormous long-term costs while other measures delivered better health outcomes for far less money, according to new research led by Oxford University's Department of Statistics and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science analysing non-pharmaceutical interventions in the United States.

13 Sep 2025

Under Trump, FDA seeks to abandon expert reviews of new drugs

FDA leaders under President Donald Trump are moving to abandon a decades-old policy of asking outside experts to review drug applications, a move critics say would shield the agency's decisions from public scrutiny.

12 Sep 2025

KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Countdown to government shutdown

Oct. 1 is the start of the next fiscal year, and unless Congress reaches agreement on continued spending, big parts of the government could shut down that day.

11 Sep 2025

Food insecurity raises long COVID risk while SNAP support cuts it

Food insecurity was linked to 73% higher odds of current Long COVID and 30% lower odds of recovery among US adults with prior infection, based on National Health Interview Survey data. Participation in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) mitigated this association, highlighting food assistance as a potential public health intervention.

11 Sep 2025