Question

What are vaccines and why are they important for us?

Answer 1

A vaccine is a prophylactic measure to prevent the occurence of a certain disease for which the vaccine has been given. It is usually a suspension of weakened or killed pathogens or it's components that are responsible for the disease such as surface proteins or lipids. This suspension is injected in humans, usually at early age in the hope that body will recognise it as foreign particles and create antibodies against the infection. These antibodies would be stored in immunologic memory and will help prevent the occurence on disease in case of further infection down the line. The primary purpose of vaccine is to establish memory immune cells for generating a secondary immune response in case of an infection.

Importance of Vaccines:

• They confer active immunity against specific agents by estabilishing immunological memory in organisms against that agent.
• They may also confer passive immunity by providing antibodies or lymphocytes already made by an animal or human donor.
• Vaccination has played a great role in extinction of diseases such as small pox and polio. Cases of Mumps, measles and diphtheria etc. have decreased considerably with the advent of vaccines against these diseases.
• Viral infections such as HIV, Swine flu, Zika virus and Ebola have no specific cure and are usually fatal to the patient. However, with the growing advancement in vaccination technology, scientists are now succesfully researching the possibility of preventing the occurence of these infections by means of vaccines.