Classify vaccines with example
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vaccine classification
Vaccines can be classified by how the antigen is prepared:
| Type | What it contains | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Live attenuated vaccine | Living organisms weakened so that they usually do not cause disease in healthy people | BCG, OPV (Sabin), MMR, varicella, rotavirus, yellow fever, intranasal influenza vaccine |
| Inactivated (killed) vaccine | Whole organisms killed by heat or chemicals | IPV (Salk), rabies, hepatitis A, inactivated influenza vaccine, cholera |
| Toxoid vaccine | Inactivated bacterial toxin, which produces antitoxin immunity | Diphtheria toxoid, tetanus toxoid |
| Subunit / purified antigen vaccine | Specific antigenic components of the organism | Acellular pertussis, hepatitis B surface-antigen vaccine, HPV vaccine, recombinant zoster vaccine |
| Polysaccharide vaccine | Purified capsular polysaccharide antigens | Pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPSV23), typhoid Vi vaccine, meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine |
| Conjugate vaccine | Bacterial polysaccharide linked to a protein carrier to improve immune response, especially in children | Hib conjugate, pneumococcal conjugate (PCV), meningococcal conjugate (MenACWY) |
| Viral-vector vaccine | A harmless vector virus delivers genetic instructions for an antigen | Ebola rVSV vaccine; some COVID-19 vaccines such as ChAdOx1 and Ad26.COV2.S |
| Nucleic-acid vaccine | DNA or mRNA encoding an antigen | mRNA COVID-19 vaccines such as Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna |
| Combination vaccine | More than one vaccine antigen in a single preparation | DPT/DTaP, MMR, pentavalent vaccine, MMRV |
Key point: Live attenuated vaccines often generate strong, long-lasting immunity, but are generally avoided in severe immunodeficiency and pregnancy. Non-live vaccines are safer in these groups but commonly require booster doses. CDC lists MMR, varicella, rotavirus, yellow fever, and intranasal influenza among live attenuated vaccines, while IPV and injectable influenza vaccines are inactivated examples (CDC vaccine categories).
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