Immunological aspects of the prevention of viral diseases. WHO Workshop

This article summarizes the conclusions of a WHO Workshop which reviewed the role of immunological mechanisms in protection against and recovery from virus diseases. Antibodies are important for preventing infection from some viruses, e.g., influenza virus. In contrast, cell-mediated immunity is more important in the process of recovery from an already established infection. Furthermore, while antibodies are extremely specific in their action, cell-mediated immunity exhibits a greater degree of cross-reactivity. This finding could be useful in designing potential vaccines, particularly attenuated virus vaccines using molecular biological methods. Such an approach could be valuable for poliomyelitis vaccine, whose RNA sequence has now been determined. The possibility of using recombinant vaccinia viruses as a potential vector for other virus antigens is also discussed.