B6.1 - Vaccination (Finished)

Question 1

What does immunisation involve?

Answer 1

Immunisation involves giving you a vaccine of dead/inactive forms of a disease-causing microorganism (pathogen)

Question 2

Why is vaccination needed?

Answer 2

Some pathogens can make you seriously ill before your body manages to make the right antibodies, so a vaccine helps it know from the start which ones to make

Question 3

How can a spread of a virus be prevented?

Answer 3

If a large population are vaccinated against the virus, the spread of the pathogen is much reduced

Question 4

How does your body remember what antibodies to produce to fight a pathogen?

Answer 4

Some white blood cells ‘remember’ the right antibody needed to destroy anpathogen

Question 5

Why do you get ill the first time you meet a pathogen but not when you meet the same one again?

Answer 5

You get ill the first time you meet a new pathogen as there is a delay while the body finds out the right antibody needed

Question 6

Why does injecting dead/weakened pathogens (vaccination) help you become immune to that pathogen?

Answer 6

Dead/inactive pathogens injected into the body during vaccination carry antigens that cause your body to produce antibodies to attack them. The body ‘learns’ what antibodies stop that pathogen and so the next time a live one attacks the white blood cells can rapidly mass-produce the right antibodies

Question 7

What is herd immunity?

Answer 7

the resistance to the spread of a contagious disease within a population that results if a sufficiently high proportion of individuals are immune to the disease

Question 8

What does herd immunity state?

Answer 8

If a large proportion of the population is immune to a disease, the spread of the pathogen in the population is reduced