Why Don’t We Have a Vaccine Against……….? Part 1. Viruses

Abstract

Despite the large number of vaccines, this review asks the question, why don’t we have vaccines for all infectious diseases? This question is especially relevant with the recent outbreak of Ebola in Africa. To answer this question, we first look at the reasons for the success of our current vaccines. Next, we will look at the difficulties in developing a vaccine and the attempts that have been made, or are being attempted to develop vaccine to specific infectious diseases. The first part of this series will focus on viruses, part 2 will discuss vaccines for bacteria, fungi, and parasites.