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Draft:Plotkin's Vaccines

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Plotkin's Vaccines
8th edition cover
AuthorDr. Stanley Plotkin, Dr. Paul Offit, Dr. Walter Orenstein, and Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards
LanguageEnglish
Publication date
1988
Publication placeUnited States

Plotkin's Vaccines (also known as Plotkin on Vaccines; or just Vaccines) is a textbook on vaccines first published by Dr. Stanley Plotkin in 1988,[1][2] with subsequent editions produced every several years leading to the eighth edition in 2023. The eighth edition was co-edited by Plotkin, Dr. Paul Offit, Dr. Walter Orenstein, and Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards.[3][4][5] It is generally considered to be the standard reference on the subject.[6][7]

History and reception

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In the 1960s, Stanley Plotkin played a pivotal role in discovery of a vaccine against rubella virus while working at Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. Plotkin was a member of Wistar’s active research faculty from 1960 to 1991. In the 1980s, Plotkin had the idea to write a text focused on vaccines, explaining in an interview decades later:

I felt that there was now a field of study that was not infectious diseases. It derived from infectious diseases, but it was no longer classical infectious diseases. It was not really immunology, although immunology is of course the basis of vaccines. Vaccinology was now a field itself, and did not have a textbook. I felt that it was time to show that, indeed, it is a separate field and that it needed a source of information where you could find answers to questions about vaccines.[8]

The initial volume, published in 1988, was 633 pages, with each subsequent edition tending to add several hundred pages of new material. A review of the third edition in the journal, Shock, for example, described it as "considerably enlarged with important new additions", and noted its suitability for a broad audience, including students, practitioners, and infectious disease experts.[9]

The History of Vaccines project of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia states that Vaccines is "considered the best textbook in vaccinology".[1] A review of the eighth edition in the journal Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease stated that "Plotkin's Vaccines book has been for many years the key reference text globally in the field", and described it as "a comprehensive resource covering various aspects of vaccines and immunization, including the latest evidence, recommendations, protocols (pipelines), and developments in vaccine research".[3] The review noted that the work was endorsed by Bill Gates,[3] who has described it as "an indispensable guide to the enhancement of the well-being of our world".[4]

In December 2020, Kentucky columnist Al Cross suggested that a copy of the book would be an ideal Christmas gift for Senator Rand Paul, "so he can bone up on science that he seems to have missed in medical school".[10]

Structure

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Editions have generally been organized into five sections:

  • General Aspects of Vaccination, which covers foundational topics such as the history of vaccines, immunology, correlates of protection, and passive immunization.
  • Licensed Vaccines and Vaccines in Development, which includes disease-specific chapters on viral, bacterial, and parasitic vaccines, as well as vaccines for cancer and non-infectious diseases such as Parkinson’s and diabetes.
  • New Technologies, which explores genetic-based vaccine platforms, structural vaccinology, and related innovations.
  • Vaccination of Special Groups, with chapters on immunization for pregnant women, immunocompromised individuals, travelers, and healthcare workers.
  • Public Health and Regulatory Issues, which discusses vaccination policy variations across regions, including the United States, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and low- and middle-income countries.

The disease-specific chapters typically discuss the history of the disease, available and developing vaccines, immune response, clinical applications, and outcomes in various populations. Recent editions of the book have been accompanied by a digital eBook edition offering updates on recent topics such as mpox, and includes illustrations, supplementary tools, and access to mobile applications and web resources.[5]

Edition history

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  • Vaccines (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD and and Edward A. Mortimer MD), 633 pages, published January 1, 1988[2]
  • Vaccines, 2nd edition (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD and Edward A. Mortimer MD), 1,016 pages, published January 1, 1994
  • Vaccines, 3rd edition (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD and Walter A. Orenstein MD DSc), 1,230 pages, published October 1, 1999[9]
  • Vaccines, 4th edition (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD and Walter A. Orenstein MD DSc), 1,408 pages, published January 21, 2004
  • Vaccines, 5th edition (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD, Walter A. Orenstein MD DSc, and Paul Offit MD), 1,748 pages, published February 21, 2008
  • Vaccines, 6th edition (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD, Walter A. Orenstein MD DSc, and Paul Offit MD), 1,570 pages, published October 30, 2012
  • Vaccines, 7th edition (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD, Walter A. Orenstein MD DSc, Paul Offit MD, and Kathryn M. Edwards MD), 1,720 pages, published June 20, 2017
  • Vaccines, 8th edition (by Stanley A. Plotkin MD, Walter A. Orenstein MD DSc, Paul Offit MD, and Kathryn M. Edwards MD), 1,808 pages, published April 18, 2023

References

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  1. ^ a b "Stanley A. Plotkin, MD: Physician, Professor, Researcher, and Vaccine Developer". historyofvaccines.org. Retrieved June 17, 2025.
  2. ^ a b "Vaccines". Annals of Internal Medicine. 109 (4): 351–351. August 15, 1988. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-109-4-351_1 – via acpjournals.org (Atypon).
  3. ^ a b c Rodriguez-Morales, Alfonso J.; Chacon-Cruz, Enrique; Husni, Rola; Ulloa-Gutierrez, Rolando (September–October 2023). "Plotkin's Vaccines, 8th Edition, Walter A. Orenstein, Paul A. Offit, Kathryn M. Edwards, Stanley A. Plotkin (Eds.) (December 21, 2022)". Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. 55. doi:10.1016/j.tmaid.2023.102635.
  4. ^ a b "Plotkin's Vaccines". ScienceDirect. 2023.
  5. ^ a b Becken, MD, Bradford (October 17, 2023). "5 Star Review of Plotkin's Vaccines, 8th Edition". The Bookmark.
  6. ^ "Dr. Stanley Plotkin talks CMV vaccine research". National CMV Foundation. Retrieved 9 August 2017.
  7. ^ Christian H. Ross (13 Apr 2017). "Stanley Alan Plotkin (1932- )". The Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 14 Aug 2017.
  8. ^ Musa, Sanjin (April 18, 2018). "Life in vaccine science - a conversation with Stanley Plotkin at the 4th Conference on Vaccines in Dubrovnik, Croatia, September 2017". Euro Surveillance: Bulletin Europeen Sur Les Maladies Transmissibles = European Communicable Disease Bulletin. 23 (17): 18–00147. doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.17.18-00147. PMC 5930730. PMID 29717698 – via PubMed.
  9. ^ a b Bernstein, David I. (October 17, 1999). David J. Dries (ed.). "VACCINES, 3rd Edition". Shock. 12 (4): 327 – via journals.lww.com.
  10. ^ Al Cross, "Mischievous Christmas gifts for KY politicians, a tradition continued", The Danville Advocate-Messenger (December 25, 2020), p. A4.

Category:1988 books Category:Medical textbooks

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