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Infectious disease may be an unavoidable fact of life, but there are many strategies available to
help us protect ourselves from infection and to treat a disease once it has developed.
Some are simple steps that individuals can take; others are national or global methods of
detection, prevention, and treatment. All are critical to keeping communities, nations, and global
populations healthy and secure.
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Vaccines and Medicines
Medicines have existed in human society probably as long as sickness itself. However, with the
advent of the modern pharmaceutical industry, biochemical approaches to preventing and
treating disease have acquired a new level of prominence in the evolving relationship between
microbes and their human hosts.
Vaccines
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 or its toxins. The agent stimulates the body’s
immune system to recognize it as foreign, destroy it, and ”remember” it, so that the immune
system can more easily identify and destroy any of these microorganisms that it encounters
later. The body’s immune system responds to vaccines as if they contain an actual pathogen,
even though the vaccine itself is not capable of causing disease. Because vaccines are widely
used in the United States, many once-common diseases—polio, measles, diphtheria, whooping
cough, mumps, tetanus, and certain forms of meningitis—are now rare or well controlled.
Vaccinated people produce antibodies that neutralize a disease-causing virus or bacterium.

They are much less likely to become infected and transmit those germs to others. Even people
who have not been vaccinated may be protected by the immunity of the “herd,” because the
vaccinated people around them are not getting sick or transmitting the infection. The higher the
proportion of vaccinated people in a community, the lower the likelihood that a susceptible
person will come into contact with an infectious individual—leading to greater herd immunity.
In the past, thimerosal, a preservative that contains mercury, was used in some vaccines and
other products. Use of this product became the subject of controversy, with some arguing that
the substance caused autism in children. Extensive, independent research has presented no
convincing evidence of harm associated with the low levels of thimerosal present in vaccines.
Since 2001, thimerosal has not been routinely used as a preservative in recommended
childhood vaccines.
Antibiotics and Antivirals

Antibiotics are powerful medicines that fight bacterial infections. They either kill bacteria or stop
them from reproducing, allowing the body’s natural defenses to eliminate the pathogens. Used
properly, antibiotics can save lives. But growing antibiotic resistance is curbing the effectiveness
of these drugs. Taking an antibiotic as directed, even after symptoms disappear, is key to curing
an infection and preventing the development of resistant bacteria.
Antibiotics don’t work against viral infections such as colds or the flu. In those cases, antiviral
drugs, which fight infection either by inhibiting a virus’s ability to reproduce or by strengthening
the body’s immune response to the infection, are used. There are several different classes of
drugs in the antiviral family, and each is used for specific kinds of viral infections. (Unlike
antibacterial drugs, which may cover a wide spectrum of pathogens, antiviral medications are
used to treat a narrower range of organisms.) Antiviral drugs are now available to treat a
number of viruses, including influenza, HIV, herpes, and hepatitis B. Like bacteria, viruses
mutate over time and develop resistance to antiviral drugs.
New Treatments
Modern medicine needs new kinds of antibiotics and antivirals to treat drug-resistant infections.
But the pipeline of new drugs is drying up. For example, nearly 40 years elapsed between
introduction of the two newest molecular classes of antibiotics: fluoroquinolones (such as Cipro)
in 1962 and the oxazolidinones (such as Zyvox) in 2000.
Major pharmaceutical companies have limited interest in dedicating resources to the antibiotics
market because these short-course drugs are not as profitable as drugs that treat chronic
conditions and lifestyle-related ailments, such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol.
Antibiotic research and development is also expensive, risky, and time consuming. Return on
that investment can be unpredictable, considering that resistance to antibiotics develops over
time, eventually making them less effective.

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A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine

Vaccinated people produce antibodies that neutralize a disease-causing virus or bacterium.

Antibiotics and Antivirals

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