Vaccination is the medical procedure in which protection is intended through the induction of immunological responses to specific agents. Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to produce immunity to a disease. In some cases, antigens of different agents are placed together in the same vaccine, thus protecting against various diseases at the same time (e.g., viral trivalent or MMR—mumps, measles, and rubella). Some vaccines can prevent disease (e.g., measles or yellow fever vaccines), and others can mitigate the effects of infection by a pathogen (e.g., BCG vaccine or Bacillus Calmette-Guerin for tuberculosis).

Vaccination with effective antigenic materials has revolutionized the interventions in public health since Edward Jenner's discovery in 1796. Jenner tested the possibility of using a cowpox vaccine as an immunization for smallpox in ...