This way, everyone who has been, or could have been, exposed to a patient receives the vaccine, creating a 'ring' of protection that can limit the spread of a pathogen.

Ring vaccination requires thorough and rapid surveillance and epidemiologic case investigation.

If the infections occur within a defined geographic boundary, it may be preferable to vaccinate the entire community in which the illness has appeared, rather than explicitly tracing contacts.

In some outbreaks, it might be better to only vaccinate those directly exposed; variable factors (such as demographics and the vaccine that is available) can make one method or the other safer, with fewer people experiencing side-effects when the same number are protected from the disease.

[10][11] In 2018, health authorities used a ring vaccination strategy to try to suppress the 2018 Équateur province Ebola outbreak.