Plague vaccine


Plague vaccine is a vaccine used against Yersinia pestis. Dead bacteria have been used since 1890 but are less effective against pneumonic plague so that recently live vaccines of an attenuated type and recombination protein vaccines have been developed to prevent the disease.

Plague immunization

A plague vaccine is used for an induction of active specific immunity in a susceptible organism to plague by means of administration an antigenic material via a variety of routes to people at risk of contracting any clinical form of plague. This method is known as plague 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 of infection by Yersinia pestis. Plague immunization also encompasses incurring state of passive specific immunity 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.
A systematic review by the Cochrane 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 the vaccine.