Saar Kuzi
Alessandra Coutinho Fernandes
William Cope
Richard Tapping
Kashif Ahmad
Reda Sadki
Shubhra Kanti Karmaker Santu
Adam P Rusch
Elle Meisner
Nereyda Ochoa
Landon J. Kunzelman
James DotimasFA16 Immunization Module’s Updates
Adjuvants used in Vaccines
Adjuvants are crucial to a vaccines efficacy. Gaston Ramon first used adjuvants when he realized vaccines with impure antigens caused a greater immune response than vaccines with pure antigens. There are many vaccines that have naturally occurring adjuvants in them, those vaccines that are made of weakened or dead bacteria or viruses, or attenuated viruses. However, vaccines that only carry components of the pathogen, also known as inactivated vaccines, do not. This why adjuvants must be added. The two adjuvants currently used in the United States are aluminum and monophosphoryl lipid A, which is only used in one vaccine.
Aluminum as a part of vaccines may scare many people and lead to an anti-vaccination movement. This is simply due to people being afraid of something they have heard can be dangerous. And it’s true, aluminum can be dangerous. It is used in such small amounts it has no known effect. In fact, it is even regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Aluminum has also been used for over 80 years. Educating people about the use of adjuvants as a helpful mechanism to allow vaccines to work is an important measure in countering the anti-vaccination movement.
@Brian Didier I think a great point was made about how something that is normally consumed unknowingly in low amounts, usually within dietary consumption can scare people when mentioned in the context of medicine and vaccinations. I also think by mentioning that the levels of aluminum have been checked and evaluated by the FDA and proven to have no known adverse side effects facilitates in the education of vaccinations and possibly could remove some of the fear that the anti-vaccination movements are based off of.
@Brian Didier The reason adjuvants are used in vaccines is rarely explained along with the typical explanations of how vaccines work. It should become common practice to introduce this material in public education.
@Brian Didier I wonder how the level of aluminum an infant receives from a vaccine compares to a normal dietary aluminum intake for an infant? If it is significantly lower, those numbers might be helpful in educating parents who are hesitant to vaccinate.
@Brian Didier I agree entirely that education about vaccine components is important in combating the anti-vaccination movement. This reminds me of the controversy with Thiomersal (a mercury-based preservative once used in vaccines). Despite the lack of evidence linking it to adverse effects, it received a lot of the anti-vaccination movement's attention and was subsequently pulled from the market. Fear is a strong motivator, so education to reduce fear is crucial.
@Brian Didier, great point here, the amount matters. The US is behind in this area. Other countries, especially in Europe, are more open to testing and utilizing newer vaccine adjuvants which often work better than Alum (aluminium hydroxide) in providing protective immunity.