Fighting Disease- Vaccination

Question 1

What do vaccinations do?

Answer 1

Vaccinations protect us from future infections.

Question 2

How do vaccinations work?

Answer 2

Vaccinations involve injecting small amounts of dead or inactive pathogens. These carry antigens, which cause your body to produce antibodies to attack them- even though the pathogen is harmless.

Question 3

How do vaccinations help protect against future diseases?

Answer 3

If live pathogens of the same type appear after the vaccination, the white blood cells can rapidly mass-produce antibodies to kill off the pathogen.

Question 4

Pros of vaccination:

Answer 4

1) Vaccinations have helped control lots of communicable diseases that were once common in the uk. 2) Big outbreaks of disease- called epidemics- can be prevented if a large percentage of the population is vaccinated. This is because there are fewer people to pass it on.

Question 5

Cons of vaccination:

Answer 5

1) Vaccines don’t always work- sometimes they don’t give you immunity. 2) You can sometimes have a bad reaction to a vaccine although these are very rare.