This talk is part of the series of lectures on the latest in Science organised by Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias in collaboration with the British Council.
Vaccination against infectious diseases has changed the future of the human species, saving millions of lives every year, both in children and adults, and providing major benefits to society as a whole. Apart from clean water, they are the most cost-effective and life-saving intervention ever.
The scientific progress over the last 30 years in particular opens exciting perspectives in terms of new vaccines, also for use in emergencies, such as Ebola. However, the pathway from discovery to sustainable implementation can be long and difficult: many years go by between finding the right antigens to make a vaccine work, showing that it is safe and financing all of the subsequent phases of vaccine development, getting the product licensed and finally used in national vaccine programs. And even if we have safe and effective vaccines, not all populations benefit equally- and some people have decided they no longer want to give them to their children.
In this talk Prof. Beate Kampmann will illustrate these issues and open up the discussion about the value of vaccines for the individual, public health and global societies, and how we might get to a place where the WHO vision of vaccines for everyone, everywhere might eventually be realised.
The conference will be given in English with simultaneous translation.