Unit 2 - Vaccines

Question 1

What is immunity?

Answer 1

Body’s ability to resist infection caused by a pathogen

• virus
• bacterium

Question 2

What is the immune system capable of?

Answer 2

It can:

• identify a threat
• mount an attack
• eliminate the pathogen
• remember the pathogen for future protection

Question 3

What are bacteria?

Answer 3

Single celled microbes that are all around us and inside our bodies
- while many bacteria are essential for our survival and good health, some cause disease

Question 4

What is a virus?

Answer 4

Organic material that causes disease

- commonly infects host cells and can only survive by replicating within the cells of the host

Question 5

What is an antibody?

Answer 5

• Y-shaped proteins made by our immune system to protect us against pathogens that have entered the body
• react with a specific part of the pathogen called antigens

Question 6

What are antibodies also known as?

Answer 6

Immunoglobulins

Question 7

What are the three pathways for processing antibody-antigen complexes?

Answer 7

• neutralising or blocking antibodies
• ADCC
• CDC

Question 8

What is a vaccine?

Answer 8

A type of medicine that trains your body’s immune system to fight a specific pathogen

Question 9

What is vaccination?

Answer 9

Process of introducing a vaccine into the body

Question 10

Give three routes of vaccination

Answer 10

• injection
• orally as a solution (e.g. rotavirus vaccination)
• nasal spray as an aerosol (e.g. children’s flu vaccination)

Question 11

What is immunisation?

Answer 11

The body’s immune system trains to fight the pathogen

Question 12

What is immunity?

Answer 12

Immune system memory enables fast identification and strong response to infection with that pathogen in the future

Question 13

What is one of the most significant contributions to better health, together with clean water supplies and hygiene?

Answer 13

Vaccination

Question 14

Why are major causes of mortality and morbidity now rare?

Answer 14

Vaccination

Question 15

What is the aim of vaccination?

Answer 15

To induce specific immunity:

• protect the individual against infection and clinical disease
• protect whole population
• eradicate disease

Question 16

What is herd immunity?

Answer 16

Vaccination of a significant proportion of a population results in less risk to individuals who have not developed immunity

Question 17

When is the chain of infection disrupted?

Answer 17

When large numbers of a population are immune

Question 18

What is the herd immunity threshold?

Answer 18

80 - 95% of the population

Question 19

Who depends on herd immunity?

Answer 19

People without a fully working immune system
- without a working spleen
- organ transplant recipient
People on chemotherapy treatment whose immune system is weakened
Newborn babies who are too young to be vaccinated
Elderly people
Many of those who are very ill in hospital

Question 20

What are the benefits of vaccines?

Answer 20

• medicine/drug that provides protection from pathogens which can kill you or make you sick
• control and eradication of once common pathogens
• polio
• smallpox
• stops outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics

Question 21

What are the risks or challenges of vaccines?

Answer 21

• no medicine is 100% effective
• people can sometimes still catch the pathogen but this is very rare
• side effects like swelling and low-grade fever
• not all pathogen infections can be prevented by a vaccine
• malaria parasites

Question 22

What are the different types of vaccines?

Answer 22

• live attenuated vaccine
• inactivated vaccine
• subunit vaccine
• toxoid vaccine

Question 23

What do all vaccines contain?

Answer 23

Antigens to trigger the immune response to create specific antibodies
- a signal for pathogen destruction in the future

Question 24

What are the 3 basic types of flu?

Answer 24

Influenza A
Influenza B
Influenza C

Question 25

What are the new types of vaccines?

Answer 25

• DNA
• RNA
• protein
• viral vector
• Live virus (attenuated)
• Virus (inactivated)