| Seq #193 | Friday, 12 March 2004 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8:00 AM-10:00 AM Hawaii Convention Center 317-B, Symposium - Group/Division Sponsored | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Scientific and Moral Imperative for a Dental Caries Vaccine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sponsored by: Microbiology / Immunology and Infection Control | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Description: Dental caries is an infectious disease with the mutans streptococci as primary etiologic agents. A dental vaccine has been the topic of mucosal immunology and infectious disease research for several decades. Host mucosal immunity in preclinical and clinical studies has indicated that this immune system can interfere with the processes causing dental caries. The imperative of a vaccine to prevent caries in disadvantaged populations in the United States and in third world countries throughout the world in profound. In those disadvantaged populations the infection is not accessible to any ameliorative measures, such that a vaccine becomes the most plausible and desirable method to preventing disease. Indeed, vaccination is a very significant method to combat infectious disease whose importance has been recognized in a recent report by the Institute of Medicine. The moral and social imperative of a vaccine as a true public health measure will be discussed particularly with regard to its impact on vulnerable populations | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Back to the: Symposium Program
Back to the IADR/AADR/CADR 82nd General Session (March 10-13, 2004)