1. Unit 4 - Immunology and Public Health

2. Unit 4 – Immunology and Public Health
1. The Immune System
2. Infectious Diseases and immunity
Non-specific defences
Specific cellular defences
Transmission and control
Active Immunisation and Vaccination and the evasion of immune responses

3. By the end of this section you will be able to …..
2. Infectious Diseases & immunity
b) Active immunisation, vaccination and evasion
By the end of this section you will be able to …..
state why clinical trials are important
describe what is meant by a randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled protocol.

4. How does a new drug make it your cabinet?

5. Clinical research animation Video
Clinical Trials
Vaccines are subjected to clinical trials in the same way as other pharmaceutical medicines to establish their safety and efficacy (capable of producing the intended result) before being licensed for use.
Clinical Trials protocols MUST be:
Randomised
Double-blind
Placebo-controlled
Clinical research animation Video

6. Randomised & Double-Blind protocols
Subjects are split into groups in a randomised way in which neither the subjects nor the researchers know which group they are in to eliminate bias.

7. Placebo-Controlled Protocols
One group of subjects receives the vaccine, while the second group receives a placebo control (no medical value) to ensure valid comparisons.
The Power of the Placebo Effect video

8. Large Scale Studies
At the end of the trial, results from the two groups, which must be of a suitable size to reduce the magnitude of experimental error, are compared to determine whether there are any statistically significant differences between the groups

9. More videos Ben Goldacre on Placebo effect
How to run randomised control trials
Randomised control trials – Ben Goldacre

10. Can you now …. state why clinical trials are important
describe what is meant by a randomised, double blind, placebo-controlled protocol.