Vaccines help prevent infections, transmission and thus the spread of diseases or pathogens such as tetanus, diphtheria, Bordetella pertussis, tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBE), measles virus, rubella virus or varicella zoster virus (VZV).

Detection of IgG antibodies in order to assess the immune status is only possible for some pathogens. This requires, e.g. standardised antibody detection based on international reference preparations and the availability of a cut-off to distinguish between existing or non-existent immunity. These values have been described for tetanus, diphtheria, measles, rubella, VZV and TBE. For mumps and pertussis, however, there are no values or markers for immunity known to correspond with immune protection.