Vaccinations for emerging and re-emerging viral diseases

Background: Emerging or re-emerging viral diseases have a pandemic potential and threaten global health. Vaccination is of crucial importance in the prevention of emerging and re-emerging viral diseases. Objective: Description of the current status of vaccine development against Filoviridae, highly pathogenic coronaviruses, smallpox viruses, influenza viruses and arboviruses. Material and methods: Focused literature search. Results: The World Health Organization (WHO) regularly publishes a list of infectious diseases that are expected to pose a major threat to humanity as they are could potentially trigger new pandemics; however, in addition to these human-to-human transmissible diseases, some arboviruses also have pandemic potential. In recent years numerous new vaccines, some of which are highly effective, have been licensed against new and re-emerging viral diseases and other promising vaccine candidates are currently in development. Conclusion: There are still gaps in the development of vaccines in the area of Filoviridae and highly pathogenic coronaviruses. Vaccinations against smallpox viruses have been available for a long time. Developing influenza vaccines against novel strains in a timely manner is a challenge and universal influenza vaccines could be a possible solution. Modern vaccines are available against the arboviruses dengue and Chikungunya fever.