Vaccination is the most reliable, time proved method of fighting infections. Its efficacy has been proved both by statistics and hands-on experience of physicians on the world scale. Vaccination made it possible to do away with smallpox, significantly reduce poliomyelitis morbidity, in some countries including Russia, to basically eliminate measles and parotitis, as well as massively decrease diphtheria, epidemic roseola, and tuberculosis incidence rate. The WHO announced 2011-2020 the decade of vaccines, thus having set an objective of reducing mortality and disability associated with diseases that can be managed by vaccination through extending immunization schedules of specific countries, and vaccination coverage. (see the state report “On the sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population of the Russian Federation in 2013”).
In Russia, vaccination is one of the national priorities.
In many countries as well as in Russia, vaccination is mandatory, which is formalized in legislation. In this country, vaccination is regulated by the Federal Law No. 157 of 17.09.1998 “On infectious disease immunization”, and the Russian Ministry of Health Order No. 125n of 21.03.2014 that approved the updated National Immunization Schedule, and the Epidemics Immunization Schedule. Since 2006, annual influenza vaccination has been on the National Immunization Schedule. In 2014, such diseases as viral hepatitis B, tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, haemophilus influenza, measles, epidemic roseola, epidemic parotitis, infantile paralysis, and influenza, were supplemented by pneumococcal infection, which makes 12 diseases in total. Importantly, more than 90% of the vaccines under the National Immunization Schedule are manufactured by local companies.
R&D efforts in respect of new efficacious vaccines are continuously underway. Currently, there are more than 100 new vaccines at different development stages, including those against especially dangerous diseases, hepatitis C as well as universal influenza, and HIV vaccines.
