Vaccinations Flashcards
What happens when an antigen enters the human body?
When an antigen enters the human body the time taken to fight the antigen is quite tong.
What is the Primary Response?
When sufficient antibodies are made to destroy the pathogen and the person recovers completely.
What is the Secondary Response?
When the same pathogen/ antigen enters the body again and is destroyed much faster, due to memory B & T cells.
What is the definition of vaccinations/ immunisation?
The process of giving a dose of weaker/ inactivated pathogens to organisms in order to activate the primary response which thus provides immunity to diseases.
What are the forms that vaccinations can take?
Live viruses, inactivated toxins and killed/ harmless bacteria.
What is active immunity?
When a weakened strain of a pathogen is injected into the host, stimulating the whole immune response, without having the symptoms. It provides long term immunity. If the same pathogen enters the organism, a secondary response is activated which is why we do not experience the symptoms.
What is passive immunity?
It involves the injection of antibodies into the individual when a pathogen is present. Antibodies can come from different organisms. It provides protection from diseases that the body has never experienced. There are no memory cells and therefore provides short term immunity e.g. tetanus serum.
