About Plague

Plague

Killed whole cell vaccines for plague were first produced as long ago as the late 1890s and modified versions of these are still used, with evidence that they are efficacious against bubonic plague. Renewed efforts with modern technology have yielded new candidate vaccines that are less reactogenic, can be produced in a conventional pharmaceutical manufacturing plant, and are protective against the life-threatening pneumonic form of the disease. This chapter reviews the threat still posed by plague in the world today, the rationale for the research and development of new vaccine formulations and assesses the likely impact of a prophylactic vaccine for pneumonic plague.