Vaccinations

Question 1

What is active immunity?

Answer 1

your immune system makes its own antibodies after being stimulated by antigens that have entered the body - long term protection

Question 2

What is natural active immunity?

Answer 2

when the individual becomes infected with the disease creating antibodies and memory cells

Question 3

What is artificial active immunity?

Answer 3

weakened version of the pathogens are antigens via a vaccination

Question 4

What is passive immunity?

Answer 4

antibodies are made by another organism - no exposure to antigens - gives an immediate, short term protection and no memory cells are produced

Question 5

What is natural passive immunity?

Answer 5

transfer of maternal antibodies to foetus/baby by placenta/milk

Question 6

What is artificial passive immunity?

Answer 6

you become immune after being injected with antibodies e.g. tetanus injection, rabies injection, anti-venom antibodies

Question 7

What are the differences between active and passive immunity?

Answer 7

A = long term protection, memory cells produced, antibodies produced in own body
P = short term protection, no memory cells produced, antibodies produced outside the body and then introduced to the body

Question 8

What are vaccinations?

Answer 8

small amounts of weakened or dead pathogen or antigens introduced by injection

Question 9

What do vaccinations do?

Answer 9

make you immune without getting any symptoms but doesn’t prevent the entry of pathogens

Question 10

How do vaccines create immunity?

Answer 10

-exposure to antigens activates B cell to go through clonal expansion and differentiation and mitosis to make plasma cells (which make antibodies) or memory
- memory B cells will divide rapidly by mitosis and make plasma cells if they collide with an antigen they have encountered previously which means a large number of antibodies will be produced rapidly so pathogens are destroyed before symptoms occur

Question 11

What is Herd immunity?

Answer 11

if enough of the population are vaccinated, the pathogen cannot spread easily amongst the population

Question 12

Why is Herd immunity good?

Answer 12

provides protection for those not vaccinated (can’t due to reasons) and it is never possible to vaccinate everyone

Question 13

What is Ring Vaciination?

Answer 13

vaccinate all the people around the victim - contains spread within the ring, traces and isolates contacts and makes travel restrictions

Question 14

What makes a successful vaccination programme?

Answer 14

• vaccine must be economically viable and able to be produced and stored in large quantities
• few side effects
• easily administered
• must be possible to vaccinate majority of the vulnerable population leading to herd immunity

Question 15

What are the ethical issues of vaccinations?

Answer 15

• Animal testing
• testing on humans can be risky
• risk if side effects
• compulsory vaccination to achieve herd immunity
• who would receive them first in epidemics

Question 16

What happens in the primary and secondary response of vaccinations?

Answer 16

• after the primary response, antibodies do not stay in the blood which causes the level to decline
• if the body is infected a second time by the same antigen, antibodies must be made again
• reinfection causes more rapid and stronger immune response - concentration of antibodies reaches higher level sooner as there are more plasma cells than in the primary response so there are more cells to respond to antigens so it takes less time to produce same number of plasma cells due to presence of memory cells (made during primary response) so there is no need for antigen presentation and clonal selection.