Vaccines are medications that are designed to stimulate the body's
immune system to generate a response that will protect the individual from
disease caused by the pathogen in question.
The first vaccination was performed by Edward Jenner who had noticed that dairy maids who had had cowpox infection did not succumb to the deadly smallpox infection that was claiming many lies at the time.
The body's immune system is comprised of two arms - antibody-mediated
immunity and cell-mediated immunity. All vaccines developed in the last 50
years probably protect by stimulating a potent antibody response. However, for
pathogens that live within cells of the body, where antibodies can't reach, it
is likely that cell-mediated immunity is required for protection. Examples of
such pathogens include malaria, TB and HIV. Each of these is a huge global
health problem claiming millions of lives each year for which there is no
effective vaccine.
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