Ch.17

Question 1

What are adjuvants?

Answer 1

Substances that increase the antigenicity of a vaccine.

Question 2

What is contact immunity?

Answer 2

This occurs when a vaccinated individual infects those around them (with mild infection), and provide immunity beyond the vaccinated individual.

Question 3

What are some pros of attenuated vaccinations?

Answer 3

• stimulates a strong immune response
• Vaccinated individual can infect those around them (with mild infection) and provide contact immunity.

Question 4

Describe Attenuated vaccines

Answer 4

a. Viruses are raised for several generations in tissue culture cells until they lose virulence.
b. Bacteria are cultured under unusual conditions or genetically manipulated
c. Avirulent pathogen causes mild infection, but no serious disease. Viruses will infect host cells and replicate which stimulates an immune response.

Question 5

What are the 2 types of immunization and what describe them

Answer 5

1. Active immunization, the patient mounts a normal active response after contacting an antigen. Either naturally, (normal contact with full pathogen), or artificially (vaccination with modified pathogen).
2. Passive immunotherapy, the patient acquires temporary immunity through receiving preformed antibodies.

Question 6

What are the pros and cons of inactived vaccines?

Answer 6

Pro: Safer since they can’t replicate, revert or mutate, but “boosters” are necessary.

Cons: No contact immunity is gained

Question 7

What is Herd immunity?

Answer 7

• The Protection provided when a majority of individuals (75%) are vaccinated.
• The pathogen cannot effectively spread through the population. Not enough individuals to serve as carriers/reservoir.

Question 8

What is antigenicity?

Answer 8

The ability of an antigen to bind specifically with a group of certain products (T and B-cells) and stimulate an immune response.

Question 9

What are toxoid vacines?

Answer 9

For some bacterial disease it’s best to have immunity for the offending toxin instead of the cell itself.

a. chemically or thermally modified toxins stimulate antibody mediated immunity
b. low antigenicity requires multiple boosters and reinoculations every 10 years

Question 10

What is Immunization?

Answer 10

The administration of any antigenic inoculum

Question 11

What are the 4 ways recombinant DNA technology could help improve/make vaccinations?

Answer 11

1. Selectively deleting virulence genes from a
   pathogen producing an irreversibly attenuated
   microbe.
2. Production of large amounts of very pure viral or
   bacterial antigens.
3. Genetically altered cell or virus used as a
   recombinant vaccine.
4. Recombinant DNA is injected into the body, is
   taken up, and triggers a cellular response.

Question 12

What is a “wild type” virus?

Answer 12

When a modified virus, which was originally unharmful to humans, reverts back to a virus that can cause disease.

Question 13

Describe anaphylactic shock

Answer 13

An extreme, often life-threatening allergic reaction to an antigen to which the body has become hypersensitive.

Question 14

What are some cons of attenuated vaccinations?

Answer 14

• May cause disease in immunosuppressed people
• Pregnant women should not receive these vaccines
• Occasionally modified viruses actually revert back to wild type or mutate to a disease causing form.

Question 15

What are the two types of inactivated (killed) viruses?

Answer 15

1. Whole agents - deactivated but whole microbes

* Nonantigenic portion may cause painful inflammatory response. (Pertussis)

2. Subunit – produced with antigenic fragments

NOTE: Important that antigen portions remain as similar to those of living pathogens as possible.

Question 16

List a few of the safety issues regarding vaccinations.

Answer 16

Safety issues generally involve mild toxicity
1. Pain at the injection site lasting hours to days.

2. General malaise and possible high fever
3. Anaphylactic shock in reaction to a component of
   the vaccine such as egg.
   a. You should remain in the Dr’s office for
   several minutes after a vaccination
4. Residual virulence discussed earlier.

Question 17

What is titer?

Answer 17

The measurement of the levels of IgG and IgM in the blood of an individual.

Question 18

What are combination vaccines?

Answer 18

Vaccines that combine antigens from inactivated pathogens and toxoids; they are then administered together.

Ex:

a. MMR – measles, mumps, rubella
b. Pentacel – diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and Haemophilus influenzae.

Question 19

What is a booster?

Answer 19

An additional dose of an immunizing agent, such as a vaccine or toxoid, given at a time after the initial dose to sustain the immune response elicited by the previous dose of the same agent

Question 20

What is variolation?

Answer 20

The process of deliberately in-fecting young children with particles of ground smallpox scabs from children who had survived mild cases. By doing so, they succeeded in significantly reducing the population’s overall morbidity and mortality from the disease.

Question 21

Define vaccination

Answer 21

The administration of antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate an individual’s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen