Communicating the role and value of vaccine adjuvants

Despite the inclusion of adjuvants in many routinely used vaccines to improve the immune response, their presence and role are neither clear in product details such as the packaging or in the Summaries of Product Characteristics, nor understood by health professionals or the public. For many vaccines the adjuvant may simply be described as 'Adsorbed' without clarification that the adsorbing onto a material such as aluminium hydroxide adjuvants the antigens. As many future vaccines are likely to be adjuvanted, the presence of adjuvants, either those used in existing vaccines or novel formulations, may raise public and professional concerns unless communication materials are prepared in advance to allay anxieties such as those that have arisen over some present vaccine ingredients such as thiomersal. This raises a dilemma about how active such communications should be: over-promotion of the presence of a new adjuvant may cause unneeded anxieties; under-promotion may raise concerns over concealment of information. Research is needed and appropriate communication materials should be prepared.