The purpose of vaccinations is to protect you from diseases.
Vaccines train yourimmune systemto recognize and fight specific disease-causing organisms known aspathogens, which include viruses and bacteria.
They then leave behind memory cells that can mount another defense if the pathogen returns.
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They are broadly classified into two parts: innate immunity and adaptive immunity.
Innate Immunity
This is the part of the immune system that you are born with.
Antibodies are “programmed” to recognize the attacker based onantigens(specific proteins) on its surface.
Get our printable guide for your next doctor’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
These antigens serve to distinguish one pathogen throw in from another.
Some of these are long-lasting, while others wane over time and begin to lose their memory.
Alternatively, the body can beimmunizedagainst disease throughvaccinationto achieve this same defense.
This new technology was used to create theModernaand Pfizer vaccines used to fightCOVID-19.
There are also therapeutic vaccines that activate the immune system to help treat certain diseases.
This includes organ transplant recipients and people withHIV, among others.
Inactivated Vaccines
Inactivated vaccines, also known as whole-killed vaccines, use whole viruses that are dead.
Because they dont use the whole virus or bacterium, side effects arent as common as with live vaccines.
With that said, multiple doses are typically needed for the vaccine to be effective.
These also include conjugate vaccines in which the antigenic fragment is attached to a sugar molecule called a polysaccharide.
Within the coding are instructions on how to “build” a disease-specific antigen called a spike protein.
The mRNA is encased in a fatty lipid shell.
Once the coding is delivered, the mRNA is destroyed by the cell.
This typically takes years and involves no less than 15,000 trial participants.
This is referred to asherd immunity.
Herd immunity is what led public health officials to eradicate diseases like smallpox that used to kill millions.
Even so, herd immunity is not a fixed condition.
Ifvaccine recommendationsare not adhered to, a disease can re-emerge and spread throughout the population yet again.
Vaccines help the body learn how to defend itself from disease without the dangers of a full-blown infection.
Different types of vaccines work in different ways with the same goal of triggering an immune response.
Vaccines work and are safe for almost everyone.
Get our printable guide for your next doctor’s appointment to help you ask the right questions.
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