Immunity And Vaccinations Flashcards
1
Q
What is a vaccination?
A
Introduction of appropriate disease antigens into the body
2
Q
What types of disease antigens are in vaccines?
A
- dead form of microorganism
- attenuated (harmless version)
- antigen
3
Q
What is antigenic variability?
A
Change of surface protein by microorganisms in order to try and evade the immune system
4
Q
Why do vaccines need to be modified yearly?
A
Antigenic variability- so mutated microorganism doesn’t evade immune system
5
Q
What is the success of the vaccination (smallpox) due to?
A
- stable virus (same antigen)
- live vaccine (similar)
- vaccine freeze dried (global distribution)
- symptoms of disease obvious
- easy administration of vaccine
- doesn’t infect animals
- villagers teach themselves
6
Q
What is herd immunity?
A
Resistance to spread of contagious disease within a population that results in a sufficiently high proportion of individuals immune to disease especially through vaccination
