Shall we review the policy of Vaccination?

At the very beginning, I want it to be very clear that I will always appreciate & remain thankful for the efforts in developing vaccines, which have irradicated many of the dangerous infectious diseases up to date & will continue to do so undoubtedly & that I am not at all against the vaccination policy! Still there are certain important points which I consider worth to be discussed with the BMJ society.

1.      Although development & research in vaccines is one of the very important milestones in the field of medicines, is it justifiable to continue vaccination programs for the diseases which have already been irradicated? Examples being smallpox, diphtheria & pertussis(still some sporadic cases being reported)

2.      It has been observed that poliomyelitis is also on the verge of extinction, the credit goes to the combined & meticulous efforts by the WHO & multinational funding. There is no another example of this kind where the national program is being most critically followed up at every level of the healthcare infrastructure. It has been possible only due to combined & marathon efforts. But at the same time, other & probably more important diseases with higher mortality like Malaria, is still being neglected despite the fact that malaria still continues to be a major global healthcare threat! We should focus on the most life threatening diseases with utmost priority.

3.      Vaccines, live or attenuated primarily work by helping our body immune system to boost, identify & activate the defense mechanisms against the culprit pathogens. But is it not likely that the immunomodification may have some unwanted & serious alterations in our body immune system, & the natural way our body react? The modification in the immune response cannot necessarily be target specific!  In the future, this could even be possible with the help of nanotechnology.