Vaccinations

• Vaccinations can protect from future infections

  • when you are infected by a pathogen, it takes your white blood cells a few days to learn how to deal with it
  • vaccinations involve injecting small amounts of dead/inactive pathogens. These carry antigens. For example MMR vaccine carry weakened versions of the virus measles, mumps and rubella
  • if live pathogens of the same type appear after that, the white blood cells can rapidly reproduce to kill pathogens
• Pros of vaccination

  • helped to control lots of communicable diseases that were once common in the UK
  • Big outbreaks of disease (epidemics) can be prevented if a large percentage of the population is vaccinated
• Cons of vaccination

  • don't always work - don't give immunity
  • sometimes have a bad reaction to a vaccine - rare