Why are you given vaccines
Answers
A vaccine activates our immune system without making us sick. Many dangerous infectious diseases can be prevented in this simple and effective way. A vaccine activates our immune system without making us sick
Answer:
Why do we need vaccines?
Vaccines are one of our most effective health interventions, but are often misunderstood. In this Q&A, we explain what they are, how they work and why they are important.
What is a vaccine?
We’re protected from infectious disease by our immune system, which destroys disease-causing germs – also known as pathogens – when they invade the body. If our immune system isn’t quick or strong enough to prevent pathogens taking hold, then we get ill.
We use vaccines to stop this from happening. A vaccine provides a controlled exposure to a pathogen, training and strengthening the immune system so it can fight that disease quickly and effectively in future. By imitating an infection, the vaccine protects us against the real thing.
Why are vaccines important?
They protect us from dangerous diseases. In some regions or populations, dangerous diseases are constantly present (endemic). Examples include hepatitis B, cholera and polio. So long as these diseases are around, we need vaccines to bolster our immune systems and protect us from harm.
They protect children and the elderly. Our immune systems are strongest in adulthood, meaning that young children and the elderly are particularly susceptible to dangerous infections. By strengthening our immune systems early and late on in life, vaccines bypass this risk.
They protect the vulnerable. If enough of a population is vaccinated, infections can’t spread from person to person, which means that everyone has a high level of protection – even those who don’t have immunity.This is known as herd protection (or herd immunity). It’s important because not everyone can be directly protected with vaccines – some people are unresponsive to them or have allergies or health conditions that prevent them from taking them.
They can help us control epidemics. In a world of denser cities, increased international travel, migration and ecological change, the ability of emerging infectious diseases (such as Ebola) to spread and cause devastation is increasing. Vaccines can be a key tool in managing this threat – but only if we have them ready for diseases when they appear.
They can help limit drug resistance. Medicine relies on being able to treat infectious diseases with antimicrobial drugs, such as antibiotics, but overuse and misuse of these drugs is leading to infections becoming resistant to them. By preventing infections that would require drug treatments, vaccines reduce the opportunity for drug resistance to develop.
They are our most effective health intervention. Vaccines prevent an estimated 2–3 million deaths worldwide every year. But, a further 1.5 million lives could be saved annually with better global vaccine coverage.
How does a vaccine work?
Our immune system fights disease by distinguishing between things that belong in our bodies and things that don’t, destroying the latter. Unwanted foreign substances are identified by markers on their surface called antigens.
A vaccine works by exposing the immune system to the antigens from a pathogen, something such as a virus or bacterium that causes a certain disease. When your immune cells encounter these antigens, they mount a response. One cell type – B cells – start making antibodies, which bind to the foreign substance, disable it and mark it for destruction. Other immune cells, known as T cells, attack and destroy cells of the body that have been infected by the pathogen.
At the same time, the body also produces long-lived types of white blood cell – called memory T cells and memory B cells – that remember the antigens that have just been encountered. If your immune system comes across the same antigens again, these memory cells allow you to mount a strong response against that specific pathogen very quickly, so you are much less likely to get ill.
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