 Plague vaccine being administered | |
| Vaccine description | |
|---|---|
| Target | Yersinia pestis |
| Vaccine type | Attenuated |
| Clinical data | |
| AHFS/Drugs.com | Micromedex Detailed Consumer Information |
| ATC code | |
| Identifiers | |
| ChemSpider |
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| UNII | |
 N Y (what is this?) (verify) | |
Plague vaccine is avaccine used againstYersinia pestis to prevent theplague.[1]Inactivated bacterial vaccines have been used since 1890 but are less effective against thepneumonic plague, so live,attenuated vaccines andrecombinant protein vaccines have been developed to prevent the disease.[2]
The first plague vaccine was developed by bacteriologistWaldemar Haffkine in 1897.[3][4] He tested the vaccine on himself to prove that the vaccine was safe.[4][5] Later, Haffkine conducted a massive inoculation program inBritish India, and it is estimated that 26 million doses of Haffkine's anti-plague vaccine were sent out fromBombay between 1897 and 1925, reducing the plague mortality by 50%-85%.[3][6]
A plague vaccine is used for an induction ofactive specificimmunity in an organism susceptible toplague by means of administrating anantigenic material (avaccine) via a variety of routes to people at risk of contracting any clinical form of plague. This method is known asplague immunization. There is strong evidence for the efficacy of administration of some plague vaccines in preventing or ameliorating the effects of a variety of clinical forms ofinfection byYersinia pestis. Plague immunization also encompasses incurring a state ofpassive specificimmunity to plague in a susceptible organism after administration of a plague serum or plague immunological in people with an immediate risk of developing the disease.[7]
A systematic review by theCochrane Collaboration found no studies of sufficient quality to be included in the review, and were thus unable to make any statement on the efficacy of modern plague vaccines.[8]
