Organisation: Vaccination Flashcards
What do vaccinations involve?
Vaccination involves introducing small quantities of dead or inactive forms of a pathogen into the body.
Why cannot the vaccine lead to disease in the patient?
The vaccine cannot lead to disease in the patient as the pathogens which are used in the vaccine are dead or inactive so they cannot replicate.
After the vaccine is injected into the patient what is the bodies reaction?
The white blood cells are now stimulated to produce antibodies against the dead or inactive pathogen. At the same time, the white blood cells divide by mitosis to produce lots of copies of itself. These can stay in the body for decades.
What may happen if a disease you’ve had a vaccine for returns?
The copies of the white blood cells which were made from the vaccine will still be in the blood and if the same pathogen now enters the body, the white blood cells can produce the correct antibodies quickly. This prevents infection.
What is meant by “Heard immunity”?
Heard immunity is when a very large number of people are vaccinated against pathogens and the people that do not get vaccinated are also protected as the unvaccinated person cannot catch the disease because no one around them can pass the pathogen on.
This decks done
