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Why does drug resistance easily evolve but vaccine resistance does not?

rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org

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Re: Why does drug resistance easily evolve but vaccine resistance does not?

#41
post #17

Very good question and a very good answers in this article! I'll add one more reason not explored by the authors: antibodies don't "leak" in the environment, in contrast to the antibiotics which are everywhere. For example, if I'm vaccinated against S. pneumoniae (one of the bacteria that can cause pneumonia), the bacteria have to get inside my body to gain exposure to my vaccine-induced antibodies. This makes the em…

> Contrast this to antibiotics...However, I excrete those antibiotics in urine and stool.

Well that’s just some hand wavy pseudoscience right there.

Regarding the OPV Polio Vaccine, from the Global Polio Eradication Project site - “For several weeks after vaccination the vaccine virus replicates in the intestine, is excreted and can be spread to others in close contact”

Source: http://polioeradication.org/polio-today/polio-prevention/the...

Re: Why does drug resistance easily evolve but vaccine resistance does not?

#42
post #17

Very good question and a very good answers in this article! I'll add one more reason not explored by the authors: antibodies don't "leak" in the environment, in contrast to the antibiotics which are everywhere. For example, if I'm vaccinated against S. pneumoniae (one of the bacteria that can cause pneumonia), the bacteria have to get inside my body to gain exposure to my vaccine-induced antibodies. This makes the em…

They do raise this in their discussion part: "Fourth, vaccines are only active while pathogens are inside hosts, but drugs can remain active in environmental reservoirs [89], suggesting that the strength of selection for resistance may differ for drug and vaccine resistance. However, drug resistance readily evolves even in pathogens that lack environmental life stages such as HIV [8]."
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