What do you think the next big vaccine breakthrough will be?
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Company: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Job Title: Author, Chief of the Division of Infectious, and Director of the Vaccine Education Center
Answer
I think the next big breakthrough will be a meningococcal vaccine that contains cross-reactive proteins that protect against all 5 prevalent serogroups; specifically, serogroups , A, C, Y, W, and B. Although the incidence of meningococcal disease in infants and adolescents has declined in the last 10 years, this is still and important disease to prevent. The current meningococcal vaccine doesn’t contain a polysaccharide that protects against serogroup B, the most important cause of disease in infants and young children and an important cause of disease in adolescents.