Abstract:
In recent decades, pathogens have continued to strike humans in the form of newly emerging
or re-emerging infectious diseases, opportunistic infectious diseases, and infections caused by drug-
resistant microbes. In response, humans have developed modern platform technologies that can produce
effective vaccines to prevent pathogens from causing infectious diseases. Vaccines against
antimicrobial-resistant organisms could prevent or minimize life-threatening infections, thus lowering
healthcare costs. These pharmaceutical products could also reduce antibiotic use, lowering the risk of
antimicrobial resistance (AMR) emergence. Furthermore, once a population has received enough
vaccines, indirect protection via herd immunity can help to prevent the spread of resistant strains. In
this sense, antibiotics would be unnecessary once the burden of pathogen-associated illnesses is
reduced. Based on such a notion, bacterial vaccines would be an excellent and applicable solution to
fight AMR. In this review, we highlight our current understanding of AMR, the role of bacterial
vaccines in preventing AMR, and discuss the potential of bacterial vaccines and their pitfalls in
managing infectious diseases.
