B6: preventing and treating disease

• Vaccine


  A small part of dead or an active form of a disease that is injected into the body to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies and antitoxins
• How vaccines work

  1. Immune system and white blood cells attack the injected inactive or dead pathogen

  2. Body creates antibodies and antitoxins to the pathogen

  3. Body is now able to fight the disease if infected
• Herd immunity


  When over 80% of a population is vaccinated, the disease cannot spread and cause a pandemic
• If only 50% of a population is vaccinated, there is no herd immunity and the disease can still spread quickly
• Some people do not vaccinate their children due to concerns about safety, which prevents herd immunity
• Antibiotics

  Medications that kill bacteria
• Painkillers


  Medications that reduce symptoms but do not kill the disease
• Antibiotics need to be prescribed by a doctor due to antibiotic resistance
• Antibiotic resistance

  Bacteria mutate and become resistant to antibiotics, rendering them ineffective
• Overuse of antibiotics in humans and animals contributes to antibiotic resistance
• Drug development process

  1. Cell testing

  2. Animal testing

  3. Patient testing

  4. Release to public
• Double-blind trial


  Half of patients receive a placebo, neither the patients nor the doctors know who receives the real drug, to remove bias