Fighting disease - Vaccination

Question 1

What is the purpose of vaccination

Answer 1

To protect from future infections

Question 2

How long does it take white blood cells to deal with a new pathogen

Answer 2

A few days (in this time you can become quite ill)

Question 3

What are the four stages of the immunisation process in a vaccination

Answer 3

1) A small amount of dead or inactive pathogen is injected into the body
2) These pathogens carry antigens which cause the body to produce antibodies to attack them (even though the pathogen is harmless as it’s dead or inactive)
3) If live pathogens of the same type appear after that the white blood cells can rapidly mass produce antibodies to kill off the pathogen
4) The person has now become immune to the disease

Question 4

Give an example of a vaccine

Answer 4

The MMR vaccine contains weakened versions of the viruses that cause measles, mumps, rubella in one vaccine.

Question 5

What are the 2 pros of vaccination

Answer 5

1) Vaccines have helped control lots of communicable diseases
2) Vaccines has helped prevent epidemics (a big outbreak of disease)

Question 6

What are the 2 cons of vaccination

Answer 6

1) Vaccines don’t always work

2) You can have a bad reaction to a vaccine

Question 7

What evidence is there of vaccines are effective at controlling communicable diseases

Answer 7

Diseases that were once common in the UK such as:

• Polio
• Measles
• Whooping cough
• Rubella
• Mumps
• Tetanus

have fallen by 99% due to vaccination

Question 8

How has mass vaccination helped prevent epidemics

Answer 8

If a large % of the population is vaccination, even the people who aren’t vaccinated are unlikely to get the disease because there are fewer people able to pass it on but if a significant number of people are not vaccinated, the disease can spread quickly and many people will be ill at the same time.

Question 9

Give 3 examples of bad reactions to vaccines

Answer 9

• Swelling
• fever
• seizures