8.8 - Vaccination
What a vaccine is and why we vaccinate
- The first time a pathogen infects you, your body takes a while to make enough of the right antibody to clear it. During that time you can become ill - sometimes seriously.
- Once you've fought a pathogen off, you're usually immune to it. If the same pathogen gets into your body again, you make the right antibody so quickly that the pathogen is destroyed before it can make you ill.
- A vaccine is a way of gaining that immunity without ever having to catch the disease first.
How a vaccine works
- A vaccine contains a safe form of the pathogen you want protection against.
- This safe form cannot make you ill, but it still triggers your body to build up its defences against the pathogen.
- Vaccines can be made against both bacterial and viral diseases - for example tuberculosis, polio, and measles.
The arguments for and against vaccination
- Vaccination usually happens in childhood, so it's normally a parent's decision whether their child is vaccinated.
- There are points to weigh on both sides.
For and against
| Arguments for | Arguments against |
|---|---|
| Vaccines can protect a child from very serious diseases. | Vaccination doesn't always work - it sometimes fails to give full immunity. |
| Widespread vaccination has controlled or virtually wiped out diseases that were once common, such as smallpox and polio. | A person can occasionally have a bad reaction, such as swelling at the injection site or, rarely, a fever or seizure - though such reactions are very rare. |
The influence of the media
- Parents are also influenced by media coverage - both campaigns by health organisations encouraging vaccination, and scare stories.
- In 1998 there was a claim of a link between the MMR vaccine and autism.
- That claim was never reproduced, and the vaccine is now known to be safe.
- However, the story led many parents to stop vaccinating their children, and measles cases rose as a result.
TermDefinition
VaccineA dead, weakened or inactive form of a pathogen (or just its antigens) that makes the body build immunity without causing the disease.