Public healthLesson 1 of 4 in the course Modern medicine

Vaccination: Immunity, History, Safety, and Public Health

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Vaccination prepares the immune system to defend against an infectious disease, usually before a person encounters the disease-causing organism. This lesson explains what vaccines contain, how they activate immunity, and how vaccination differs from passive immunity and inoculation.

A vaccine is a preparation administered to help the immune system develop protection against a disease. Depending on the vaccine, it may contain a weakened live microorganism, a killed microorganism, or selected proteins or toxins from the organism. These components act as immunogens: they prompt an immune response without requiring the person to experience the full disease.

All flashcards

What is a vaccine?
A preparation administered to prime the immune system and help it develop protection against a disease. It may contain a weakened or killed organism, or selected proteins or toxins.
What does it mean to prime the immune system?
It means stimulating the immune system with an immunogen so it can recognize and respond to a disease agent in the future.
What is passive immunity?
Protection produced by receiving antibodies from another source. It can act immediately, unlike the usual delay while vaccine-induced protection develops.
What is primary vaccine failure?
A type of vaccine failure in which the immune system does not produce antibodies after the first vaccination.
How does variolation differ from vaccination?
Variolation used unattenuated smallpox material and could cause the disease. Vaccination uses an attenuated pathogen or another immunogen to stimulate protection more safely.

Quiz questions

  1. What is the primary purpose of a Phase I vaccine trial?Answer: To assess initial safety, usually in a small group of people.
  2. In Edward Jenner's 1796 experiment, what did he test as protection against smallpox?Answer: Whether exposure to cowpox could protect against smallpox.
  3. In what year did the World Health Organization declare the world free of smallpox?Answer: 1980
  4. What does an adverse-event report made after vaccination establish by itself?Answer: It records an event after vaccination but does not establish that vaccination caused it.
  5. What does herd immunity describe?Answer: Indirect protection when widespread immunity reduces opportunities for disease transmission.

Based on the Wikipedia article Vaccination, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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