Research priorities for vaccines to be used at a global level.

At a global level, there is an urgent need for vaccines against major diseases which are not yet vaccine-preventable. This particularly includes bacterial and viral diarrhoeal diseases, acute respiratory infections, AIDS, malaria, schistosomiasis and meningococcal meningitis. There is also a need for more efficient vaccines against tuberculosis, for a new measles vaccine effective in the young child in the presence of residual maternal antibodies. Therefore, research aiming to define new ways to selectively induce protective responses which would fulfill the needs of immunization programmes, not only in terms of efficacy but also in terms of practicality, represents a real priority. Along this line, modern immunology should be a significant source of new tools to achieve the goal of developing a series of new vaccines which may potentially help to prevent millions of child deaths.