Vaccination

Question 1

What is Herd immunity?

Answer 1

•Where 95% of the population have been vaccinated against a disease
•this prevents disease spreading as fewer people are able to pass it on

Question 2

What do vaccines contain?

Answer 2

Dead/inactive pathogens

Question 3

How does Vaccination work?

Answer 3

Vaccination involves introducing small quantities of dead or inactive forms of a pathogen into the body to stimulate the white blood cells to produce antibodies so that if the same pathogen re-enters the body, antibodies can be produced rapidly and the person becomes immune to the disease

Question 4

what are some pros of vaccination?

Answer 4

•you can prevent epidemics (large outbreaks of disease) by achieving herd immunity
•they have helped control lots of communicable diseases e.g. smallpox no longer exists and polio infections have fallen by 99%

Question 5

what are some cons of vaccination?

Answer 5

•vaccines don’t always work- sometimes they don’t give you immunity
•you can sometimes have a bad reaction e.g. swelling or even fever/seizures but these are very rare