A recent sudy estimates that 40% of the French population are hostile to vaccination, for reasons of intolerance or of doubtful effectiveness. Yet progress in the domain has been remarkable: are vaccines getting a bad rap?

An ardent supporter of a proven therapeutic strategy, Philippe Sansonetti recalls the world before vaccines, at the beginning of the 20th century, and the ravages of measles, diptheria, tuberculosis and Spanish flu. That was just yesterday but, thanks to vaccines and antibiotics, the passive acceptance of these epidemics that killed 15% of children in 1900 has given way to a global protection against the major infectious diseases. But this level of protection is under threat by the present suspicion of vaccines as well as by the proliferation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Part plea for "global health", part detailed explanation of the workings of vaccines, this lucid work, as rich in literary references as in future scientific perspectives, provides a comprehensive overview of this serious contemporary issue so that we may never again have to live in a world without vaccination.