Germs are all around us, both in our environment and in our bodies. When a person is susceptible and they encounter a harmful organism, it can lead to disease and death. The body has many ways of defending itself against pathogens (disease-causing organisms). Skin, mucus, and cilia (microscopic hairs that move debris away from the lungs) all work as physical barriers to prevent pathogens from entering the body in the first place.
When foreign microbes invade us, the immune system triggers a series of responses in an attempt to identify and remove them from our bodies. The signs that this immune response is working are the coughing, sneezing, inflammation, and fever we experience, which work to trap, deter, and rid the body of threatening things, like bacteria. These innate immune responses also trigger our second line of defense, called adaptive immunity. Special cells called B cells and T cells are recruited to fight microbes, and also record information about them, creating a memory of what the invaders look like, and how best to fight them. This know-how becomes handy if the same pathogen invades the body again.
What is Vaccine?
Vaccination is the safest way to protect you against infectious disease. Once you have been vaccinated, they should have the ability to fight off the disease if they come into contact with it. They will have a level of protection, or immunity, against the disease.
Scientists utilize vaccinations to trigger the body's adaptive immune system without exposing humans to the full-strength sickness, using the same principles that the body uses to defend itself.
How it works?
Vaccines carry weakened or inactive components harmless forms of the bacteria or virus. When the antigen enters the body, the immune system will be triggered and fight the "threat" like they always do to protect our body. Just like how they normally work, the body will remember the pathogen and will make protection called anti-bodies against it. So that next time, if the real virus comes into the body, the immune system will do its job and fight the virus. Rather than the antigen itself, newer vaccinations contain the blueprint for generating antigens.
Types of vaccines:
- Live attenuated vaccines
- Inactive vaccines
- Sub-unit
First, we have live attenuated vaccines. These are made of the pathogen itself but a much weaker and tamer version.
Next, we have inactive vaccines, in which the pathogens have been killed. The weakening and inactivation in both types of vaccines ensure that pathogens don't develop into a full-blown disease. But just like a disease, they trigger an immune response, teaching the body to recognize an attack by making a profile of pathogens in preparation.
The downside is that live attenuated vaccines can be difficult to make and because they're life and quite powerful, people with weaker immune systems can't have them, while inactive vaccines don't create long-lasting immunity.
Another type, the subunit vaccine, is only made from one part of
the pathogen, called an antigen, the ingredient that actually triggers the
immune response. By even further isolating specific components of antigens, like
proteins or polysaccharides, these vaccines can prompt specific responses.
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