Although most measles-related mortality occurs in the developing world, even countries with high vaccination rates suffer periodic outbreaks as a result of poorly understood vaccine failure. We do not understand what constitutes 'effective' immunity against pertussis hence we are limited in our ability to develop more successful vaccines. We have developed a variety of tools for measuring humoral and cellular immune responses to vaccines which we are applying in field evaluations of new vaccines directed against both measles and pertussis.
Human pathogens can do damage either directly or indirectly.
Measles infection is associated with a range of immunopathologic conditions. Another area if interest is the role of nutrition in modulating immunity to infectious agents. Vitamin A and immuno-competence in the elderly. DeSerres G. Cell-mediated immunity in measles vaccine 'failure'.