Immunization Guidelines and Applications

This compact yet quite comprehensive book on various aspects of vaccines and immunization is going to be very useful for postgraduate students, medical practitioners, particularly those working in the private sector. The author has written this book in an easy-to-understand language and that is the beauty of this book. There is something to provide for everyone, whether the reader is a layman or a physician. This 208 page treatise is divided into eight chapters that cover almost all the practical aspects of immunization. The initial few chapters of the book briefs about the history, epidemiology and immunology of vaccination, basic sciences, applied aspects of immunization, general recommendations on immunization, vaccination schedules and safety and cold chain and vaccine storage. This book has tried to provide an overview of the key aspects of modern-day vaccination.

Chapter 7 of this book is the most interesting section that focuses on ‘immunization in special circumstances’. The discussion would help practitioners decide the appropriate schedule for the individuals coming from outside the country. ‘Think a bit’ section is innovative with some incredible practical points. Furthermore, the ‘Did you know’ section makes reading more interesting as it reflects on the history of each vaccine. The printing with double color adds to the visual appeal.

On the flip side, the lack of illustrations such as figures and line diagrams seems like some sort of shortcoming. The editor should have provided ‘key points at the end of each chapter’. References with in-text citations are not usually anticipated from such a compact publication, however, few key resources on the subject should have been inserted as ‘further readings’. Chapters on ‘prioritization of vaccines’, ‘vaccines in the pipeline’ and ‘newer vaccine platforms’ like nucleic acid and viral vector technology would have added value to the book. Since the book was published during the pre COVID-19 era, the readers may feel disappointed in not finding a section on COVID-19 vaccines.

Overall, a satisfying experience going through the book. Since the field of vaccination is rapidly evolving and post COVID-19, there is a bombardment of new information with a new preprint dropping every other day, synchronization of the available information with the print edition has become a herculean task. Hopefully, the editor would plan a revision of this very handy book soon.