Immunizations are, ultimately, subject to the same problems of evolved avoidance as antibiotics.
The current approach to treating diseases reminds me of the story of how the Yugoslav army shot down an F-117. They had spotters telling them when the F-117 got close, they operated radar that could almost, sorta see them, and they relied on a proximity fuse, a generous damage radius, and a helluva lot of luck. We may currently be able to determine roughly what an infection is, and how it's likely to behave, but we're far, far from being able to determine any of this with sufficient accuracy.
What's really needed is a combination approach, but even a combination approach is useless until we understand more about how bacteria evolve...
Immunity against bacterial virulence factors tends to be persistent. The nature of the proteins is that they cannot change much without losing function. (Unlike viral surface coats.)
The current approach to treating diseases reminds me of the story of how the Yugoslav army shot down an F-117. They had spotters telling them when the F-117 got close, they operated radar that could almost, sorta see them, and they relied on a proximity fuse, a generous damage radius, and a helluva lot of luck. We may currently be able to determine roughly what an infection is, and how it's likely to behave, but we're far, far from being able to determine any of this with sufficient accuracy.
What's really needed is a combination approach, but even a combination approach is useless until we understand more about how bacteria evolve...