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Vaccines and World Health: Science, Policy, and Practice
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Paul F. Basch. 274 pages. New York: Oxford University Press; 1994. $49.95.
One of the highest ideals to which one may aspire is to develop and apply the means of disease prevention for all of humankind. A principal tool for prevention is immunization with vaccines, which achieves remarkable social benefits and economic savings. The complexities that are part of the creation and use of vaccines have been reduced to ultimate simplicity in Paul Basch's new book on vaccines.
Although many books deal with the theoretical and practical aspects of disease prevention, none covers with such breadth the complex combination of elements by which biotechnology is harnessed to improve the health of the world's population, especially in developing nations.
Basch, himself a Renaissance man in the health enterprise, addresses the activities and roles of four groups of workers who are critical to the successful pursuit of vaccine development and use. First are the bench scientists, who create vaccines through the application of state-of-the-art technology. Second are the implementers, who know less about the science of vaccines but who are expert in planning and using them. Third are the shakers and movers in administration, economics, finance, public policy, and sociology who make it all happen. Finally, there are the students and practitioners in medicine, public health, and science, who may be recruited to the field of vaccines through the accumulation of knowledge, understanding, and insight.
Basch's Vaccines and World Health is a valuable and complete reference text for those who wish to achieve an in-depth understanding of vaccines. It is user-friendly and useful, if not indispensable, to those who would engage in the larger enterprise of preventive medicine.
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