vaccination Flashcards
what does vaccination involve
A vaccination involves introducing small quantities of dead or inactive forms of a pathogen into the body
why can’t the pathogen in a vaccine lead to a disease in the patient?
the pathogen is dead or inactive
how does vaccination work
small quantities of the dead or inactive pathogen is introduced in to the body
white blood cells are stimulated to produce antibodies against the dead or inactive pathogen
at the same time, the white blood cells divides by mitosis to produce lots of copies of itself
these copies of white blood cells can stay in the blood for decades
if the same pathogen now enters the body even years later, the white blood cells can produce the correct antibodies quickly. This prevents infection
describe the level of the antibody after a vaccination and after the body is invaded by the real pathogen.
(on a graph)
when the real active pathogen invades, the antibody number rises very quickly and to a very high level and that’s due to the vaccination
why is it important that a very large number of people are vaccinated?
what do we call this?
in case someone that isn’t vaccinated is vulnerable to the disease, but since everyone around them is vaccinated, the unvaccinated person can’t catch the disease as no one around them can pass the pathogen on
we call this HERD IMMUNITY
what is herd immunity
when a large number of people are vaccinated so even someone who isn’t vaccinated cant catch the disease because no one around the person can pass the pathogen on
