[Future vaccines in parasitology]

The major public health problems posed by endemic parasitic diseases and the difficulty of treating these diseases have lead to a concerted effort towards the development of efficient vaccines. Associated immunological phenomena are extremely complex. It is in this area that recent progress has been the most impressive. Despite the failure of antisporozoite vaccine, which had seemed to offer much promise, the role of T-lymphocytes has been clarified. An antimerozoite vaccine utilizing several recombinant surface antigens has produced interesting experimental results. The concepts of an "antidisease" vaccine opens up a number of perspectives. Although immunodepression with respect to visceral leishmaniasis is better understood, there appears little hope for a vaccine, unlike cutaneous leishmaniasis. Immune mechanisms brought into play during schistosomiasis are particular to the disease and offer the potential for useful animal vaccines.