Vaccine: Why Vaccination Is Important

webmd.com

What Is Vaccine?

A vaccine is a biological substance designed to protect the human body from bacterial and viral infection. Vaccines are also called immunizations because they take advantage of your natural immune system to prevent infectious diseases. To understand how the vaccine works you need to think about how your immune system protects you from infections.

What Is Vaccination?

Vaccination is an easy, safe and effective way to protect our body from harmful diseases before they come in contact with them. Vaccination is the administration of vaccines to help the immune system develop protection from disease. Vaccines contain microorganisms or viruses in weakened, live or killed states, or protein or toxin from the organism. It uses our body’s natural defences to fight certain infections and strengthen our immune system.

Vaccines train our immune system to produce antibodies, just as they do when exposed to a disease. However, vaccines do not cause disease or risk complications because they are only killed or weakened by viruses or bacteria.

To stimulate the adaptive immune system they help to ward off infectious diseases. When a large number of the population is vaccinated, the flock becomes immune.

What Is In Vaccine?

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The Antigen: This is a killed or weakened form of virus or bacteria, which trains our body to recognize and fight the disease if we encounter it in the future.

Preservative: It prevents contamination and ensures the vaccine stays effective. e.g Thimerosal

Adjuvants: It helps to boost our immune system. This means they help vaccines to work better. e.g Aluminium Salt

Stabilizers: It keeps the vaccine effective after being manufactured. It protects the vaccine during storage and transportation. e.g. Sugar, Gelatin

Residual Cell Culture Materials: It helps to grow enough of the virus or bacteria to make the vaccine. e.g. Egg Protein

Residual Inactivating Ingredients: It kills viruses and inactivates toxins during the manufacturing process.

Residual Antibiotic: It prevents contamination by bacteria during the vaccine manufacturing process. e.g Neomycin

How Does Vaccine Work?

• Vaccines reduce the risk of disease by working with the human body’s natural defences to build protection. When we get vaccinated, our immune system responds To:
• Identify invading germs, such as bacteria or viruses.
• Produces antibodies. Antibodies are proteins that are naturally produced by the immune system to fight disease.
• Remember the disease and how to fight it. If we come in contact with this germ in the future, our immune system can destroy it quickly before our health deteriorates.zy6

mayoclinichealthsystem.org

• So the vaccine is a safe and clever way to build up the body’s immune system without causing disease.
• Our immune system is designed to remember. Once exposed to one or more doses of vaccine, we are typically protected from disease for years, decades or a lifetime. This is why vaccines are so effective. Instead of treating the disease, vaccines prevent you from getting sick for the first time.

What Is Booster?

centerfordignity.com

In medical parlance. a booster dose is an additional administration of a vaccine after an earlier (primer dose). “Booster basically refers to the extra dose of vaccine given after the original (or primary dose). These boosters could be weeks, months or even years later.” Sandy Salverson, vice president of pharmacy operations at Pharm D, OSF healthcare.

Sandy also added, “Most adults remember taking boosters for childhood illnesses like tetanus, where it is recommended to take booster shots every 10 years due to a weekend immune system.”

What Is The Role Of Booster?

Some vaccines are given using a basic dosing strategy with a booster dose. Along with the original dose, the immune system was designed to detect and protect antibodies against the virus. Booster shots are administered to remind the immune system of the virus to need to fight against. It improves or enhances the immune system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Que- Why do some people get fever after taking the Covid-19 vaccine?
Ans- This immune response is triggered by the antigen present in the vaccine. Increases blood flow in the body to increase the circulation of protective immune cells in the body. This can cause a rise in body temperature, which can lead to fever.

Que-Is it safe to take paracetamol before receiving the covid 19 vaccine?
Ans- It is not recommended to take painkillers like paracetamol before taking the covid 19 vaccine to avoid side effects. This is because we do not know how it can affect painkillers.

Que- Can you get affected with covid 19 after 2 doses?
Ans- People can get affected with covid 19 after taking two doses of vaccines, no vaccine is 100 % effective.

Que- Why is there a need for a booster dose?
Ans- The primary series of recommended covid 19 vaccines provide better protection against serious disease, but over time protection against infection may diminish. Locally the risk of getting vaccine breakthrough infection has increased. Therefore booster vaccination is required to reduce the risk of covid 19 infection and transmission.

Conclusion: Acceptance of a covid 19 vaccine was highly influenced by the baseline effectiveness of the vaccine. Preparing the general population to accept a vaccine with relatively low effectiveness may be difficult.

Disclaimer: All the content of this article is for information purposes only.

References: www.who.int,

www.en.wikipedia.org