Active Immunity Definition

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate an individual 's immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen. In simpler words, a vaccination is the injection of a killed or weakened organism that produces immunity in the body against that organism. The immune system is the body 's defense against

An antigen is anything in the body the is non self which could include bacteria, viruses, chemicals or abnormal cell growth.

Innate immunity refers to nonspecific defense mechanisms that come into play immediately or within hours of an antigen's appearance in the body. Adaptive immunity refers to antigen-specific immune response.

Vaccines are designed to put foreign antigens into the body so the body will produce antibodies to fight it off. When an antigen is

This is immunity in an organism that’s a result from the production of antibodies or lymphocytes after an antigen is identified in the body.

Adaptive immunity (p.446): The body’s ability to recognize and defend itself against distinct invaders and their products.

Active artificially acquired immunity is induced by a vaccine which is a substance that has antigens, the vaccine stimulates the primary response

Active immunizing agents stimulate the body to make its own antibodies and to continue on making them, the

262). Vaccinations work by using two forms of immunity, active and passive. Active immunity occurs when the immune system is triggered by a person receiving a vaccination to produce antibodies for a specific disease process as if they have contracted the actual disease. From this point on if the person is exposed to someone infected with the disease their body will recognize it and release antibodies to fight against it. In contrast, passive immunity does not result from the person themselves receiving the vaccination but rather from antibodies a baby receives through the placenta from its mother. Passive immunity generally lasts from a few months to a year at the most which will cover children until they are able to receive their own immunizations. Children are the on the front line when it comes to spreading and preventing contagious

Immunization is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. The vaccine then stimulates the body’s own immune system to protect the person against infection or disease. Immunizations play a vital role in everyone’s upbringing. The majority of parents decide to vaccinate their children without any doubt, while others struggle with whether or not the positive attributes outweigh the possible, and sometimes serious, side effects. Many

Immunotherapy is a form of medical treatment intended to stimulate or restore the ability of the immune system to fight infection and disease. This can be by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing an immune response. Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while those that reduce or suppress immune response are suppression immunotherapies. Active immunotherapy has been effective against agents that normally cause acute self-limiting infectious disease. However, a more effective immunotherapy for chronic infectious diseases or cancer requires the use of appropriate target antigens; the

Immunization occurs when a person is made resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine. A vaccine stimulates the body’s own immune system to protect a person from an infection or a disease. The vaccines give a small amount of a virus or bacteria that has been weakened or killed. The immune system learns to recognize and attack that virus or bacteria if the person is later exposed to it. Everyone’s immune system is different and not all will generate an adequate response. Because of this he or she will not be immunized from that particular disease.

Adaptive, or acquired, immunity refers to antigen-specific defence mechanisms that take several days to become protective and are designed to react with and remove a specific antigen. This is immunity develops throughout life.

This is called an immune response. Vaccination is an attempt to manipulate the immune system to provide protection from disease caused by a pathogen without subjecting the person to the actual disease. The cowpox virus was sufficiently similar to the smallpox virus that if an individual were exposed to cowpox, the person would develop antibodies that would subsequently attack and disable the smallpox virus. This basic principle discovered by Jenner over two hundred and fifty years ago is used today to develop the dozens of vaccines we take for granted.

Whilst this is occurring, memory B cells figure out the shape of the antigen and remember it. This allows the B cells to produce antibodies much faster if the pathogen reinfects the person. The problem with the human immune system is that it takes approximately three weeks to reach peak antibody concentration and remove all of the pathogens in the body. Many pathogenic diseases (tetanus, polio, meningococcal etc) will kill the individual before the 3rd line of defence has the chance to destroy them. Vaccination involves injecting antigens (in the form of attenuated pathogens or pathogen parts) into the body. This causes the same immune response that would occur if the individual was infected with the actual disease; however, because the pathogens have been weakened (or killed) and had their reproductive ability inhibited, they cannot kill. This means that If the individual is infected by the pathogen in the future, he/she is extremely unlikely to get the disease (RNA based viruses such as Influenza are exempt from this due to their antigenic shift/drift ability). The use of repeated vaccination (eg. vaccination for a particular disease at two, four and six years of age) enhances the immune system even more.