It's possible that vaccines with live viral or bacterial elements could cause an infection in people with suppressed immune systems. These vaccines are avoided for people with severe immune suppression. However, select live vaccines sometimes can be safely used in people with milder immune suppression.

Suppressed immune systems 

- cold chain
- risk of viral transmission
- risk of reversion to pathogenic form
- reactivation in immunocompromised individuals
- recombination with related viruses circulating in the population
-people with suppressed immune systems majority of the time cannot get live vaccines

Syracuse University

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs) are live, reproducing, yet mild viruses. The designs are meant to produce single-dose immunity without illness. 


Live-attenuated vaccines

Shin, M.D., Shukla, S., Chung, Y.H. et al. COVID-19 vaccine development and a potential nanomaterial path forward. Nat. Nanotechnol. 15, 646–655 (2020). doi: 10.1038/s41565-020-0737-y

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-020-0737-y

COVID-19 vaccine development and a potential
nanomaterial path forward

Disadvantages to live-attenuated vaccines

- Codagenix Incorporation’s proprietary deoptimized SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate (most prominent)
- A single-dose live-attenuated YF17D-vectored SARS-CoV2 vaccine candidate

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