Human Immune system …
The human body has an automatic defence system against various microorganisms and pathogens. This automatic defence system of the body consists of white blood cells. When a micro-organism or a pathogen invades the body, they start to attack the healthy body cells and multiply to increase its number of pathogenic cells, leading to various diseases. This pathogenic invasion is known as infection. The human immune system with white blood cells starts to act against the pathogen or the antigen by producing antibodies. These white blood cells are primarily composed of macrophages, T- lymphocytes and B-lymphocytes and they have different responsibilities in fighting against the infection. Macrophages swallow or digest the germs; dead cells; dying cells and B- lymphocytes produce antibodies against the infection while T-lymphocytes identify the pathogen if the body is exposed to the same pathogen after creating the antibodies by B-lymphocytes for a specific disease.
The mechanism of this defence system starts when a pathogen attaches to the body cells through an infection. The immune system starts to produce antibodies against the antigen within several days. The antibodies are specific for the type of antigen. After recovering from the infection, the immune system remembers the antigen and if the body is exposed again to the same antigen, then T-lymphocytes identify the germ to produce antibodies.
Introduction to Vaccination …
Vaccination comes on to the stage to prevent and protect humans against harmful diseases before they contact the human body. Simply, it is an effective and safe way of protecting from diseases by using the natural defence system to boost the immune system. There are many advantages to getting vaccines. A few of them are to protect ourselves from harmful diseases and also to protect the others around us. Vaccines are used to imitate the infection to trigger the production of antibodies against a certain type of antibody before the antigen naturally invades the body. It teaches the immune system to respond to the antigen in future before it invades the body. The history of vaccination starts with Jenner’s smallpox vaccine according to the shreds of evidence. The actual history of vaccination started with the technique of variolation. Variolation is a technique used by Asian countries to deliberate infection with smallpox. There, small viral usually a small amount of dried pus from a patient with a mild state of smallpox disease is taken and inserted into another person. This was used to induce a mild state of the disease in the individuals, therefore to prevent being re-infected with the disease. But this is not used currently. From that smallpox vaccine, the journey of vaccination was modified and developed up to today’s novel coronavirus vaccine.
Types of Vaccines …
There are many types of vaccines available nowadays. They can be categorized mainly into five groups. They are live attenuated vaccines, non-live vaccines, toxoid vaccines, subunit vaccines and conjugate vaccines. Live attenuated vaccines are similar to natural infections because these vaccines contain live viruses and bacteria with weakened levels to boost the immune system. But the persons with a weakened immune system are not recommended to get this type of vaccine. Examples of live attenuated vaccines are vaccines against measles, mumps, rubella and varicella. Non-live vaccines used inactivated or killed germs to trigger the immune system. The Polio vaccine is an example of this type of vaccine and it also acts against viruses and bacteria. Weakened toxoids are used as toxoid vaccines and tetanus toxoid is one of the uses of this type of vaccine. Subunit vaccine contains only parts of the virus or bacteria as its name. DTaP vaccine is a type of subunit vaccine. The conjugate vaccine is used to boost the immune system against the bacteria with a polysaccharide outer coating. mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is one of the best examples of this type of vaccine.
Why and How Vaccinations ????
give complete protection or it may be not adequate to produce enough antibodies against the infection. Therefore it is better to go for several doses over a period of time for effective protection against antigens because vaccination is one of the best ways to protect and prevent infectious diseases. But some side effects may arise due to vaccines. They are redness; swelling at the injection site, fever, and allergic reactions. Although there are some common side effects present with this vaccine, Severe allergic reactions are very rare. Recommendation for vaccination done by considering the age, the first vaccine received and the time since the last dose
Recently, vaccination is one of the most popular subjects in the world due to the coronavirus. Coronavirus or COVID-19 is a life-threatening infection affecting the human respiratory system. There are several types of vaccines were developed to trigger the immune system. They can be divided into several types according to the component of the vaccine. There are mRNA vaccines, protein subunit vaccines and viral vector vaccines available for COVID-19 infection. Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna are examples of mRNA vaccines. Novavax is a protein subunit vaccine and J&J/Janssen is a viral vector vaccine used for this viral infection.
Vaccination is an important component of the health system nowadays. Because the vacprotectsn protects not only the person who got the vaccine but also those around him/ her. With the development of the health field, there are many vaccines were produced to successfully prevent various life-threatening diseases. Some of them are meningitis, tetanus, measles, mild poliovirus, COVID-19 etc. Different countries have different protocols for vaccination processes for various diseases. However, age is not a restriction for vaccination. Some vaccination is given before pregnancy, during pregnancy and also after pregnancy. Some are given shortly after birth. The best example is the hepatitis B vaccine. It should be given within 24 hours of birth. The age range for vaccination may differ due to the health protocols of different countries. Although it changed due to the country’s protocol, it is necessary to get the correct dose of the vaccine to prevent the spreading of harmful diseases among the worldwide population.
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