What is a Vaccine?

What is a Vaccine? 

In order to comprehend what a vaccine is we must first breakdown a few scientific words that are essential for our complete understanding. Some of these words may sound large and intimidating but as we break them down they should become easier to understand.

Scientific Vocabulary:

Pathogen: any particle that is capable of producing disease or causing the immune system to react.

Immune Response: when faced with a pathogen (as defined above) your immune system will react in a way that will protect your body from invaders such as viruses, bacteria, or cells that don’t look like your own. It will do this by recruiting other cells called white blood cells, which act as soldiers fighting off any pathogens it can find. 

Immune System: branch of your body that is responsible for protection against disease and invasion

Memory: arguably the most beneficial portion of our immune system is the ability to remember previous pathogens. This means that if you come down with the an infection such as the chicken pox our body is able to remember that infectious agent and the next time it sees it will be able to destroy it most times before you even know that your sick!

Infection: the replication of a pathogen to the extent that it is able to invade our body and cause detrimental effects.

So what is a Vaccine?

A vaccine is a way that we trick our body. We inject ourselves with a pathogen that is unable to cause infection. This pathogen is often times dead or weakened which is why it is unable to harm us; sometimes we don’t even use the whole pathogen and only take a small piece of it that is capable of being recognized by our immune system. Even though the pathogen isn’t able to replicate or cause us damage our immune system is still able to “see” the pathogen and is still able to remember it. That means that even though we aren’t getting sick from it we are still able to remember it so next time our body comes into contact with that same pathogen it will be able to eliminate it more effectively, making us immune to that disease.

Fig. 1

Vaccines have successfully been able to prevent many infectious agents from causing death in our modern day society. In fact a few hundred years ago one wasn’t considered a “real” mother until she experienced the loss of a child due to an infection. Can you imagine that? Having the death of a child to be such a staple among your community that it defined your maturity as a parent? Thanks to vaccines that is no longer a common fear among our society.  

Click here to download our Vaccines Pamphlet written by Ariana Acquarulo 

-This article was written by Holly Spratta

References: 

"What Is a Vaccine." National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2012 <http://www.niaid.nih.gov/topics/vaccines/understanding/pages/whatvaccine.aspx>.

Herlihy, Stacy Mintzer, and E. Allison Hagood. Your baby's best shot: why vaccines are safe and save lives. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012. Print.

Cuchara , Lisa . "Vaccines ." Vaccines . Quinnipiac University . Buckman , Hamden CT . 3 Sept. 2012. Class lecture.

"Vaccines: HOME page for Vaccines and Immunizations site." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. <http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/>.

"Welcome to the Vaccine Education Center | The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia." The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia | The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Nov. 2012. <http://www.chop.edu/service/vaccine-education-center/home.html>.

Images:

Fig.1 : http://www.redorbit.com/media/uploads/2012/10/vaccine.jpg