What is immunization?
When you get sick, your body generates antibodies to fight the disease and help you get better. These antibodies stay in your body even after the disease has gone, and protect you from getting the same illness again. This is called immunity. You don't have to get sick to develop immunity; you can be given a vaccine.
Immunity through immunization
Immunization (or vaccination) protects people from disease by introducing a vaccine into the body that triggers an antibody response as if you had been exposed to a disease naturally. The vaccine contains the same antigens or parts of antigens that cause the disease, but the antigens in vaccines are either killed or greatly weakened. Vaccines work because they trick your body so that it thinks it is being attacked by a disease. Immunity through immunization happens without the consequence of being ill and without the risk of potential life threatening complications from the disease. Memory cells prevent re-infection when they encounter that disease again in the future. However, not all vaccines provide lifelong immunity. Deseases such as tetanus require booster doses every ten years for adults to maintain immunity.
Not just for children
At any age, vaccination provides the longest lasting most effective protection against disease. But childhood immunization does not provide lifelong immunity against some diseases such as tetanus (lockjaw) and diphtheria.
Adults require helper, or booster, shots to maintain immunity. As well, adults who were not adequately immunized as children may be at risk of infection from other vaccine-preventable diseases. They can also infect others. For example, adults who contract measles, mumps or pertussis (whooping cough) can infect infants who may not yet be fully immunized.
Since the introduction of vaccines, many serious illnesses have been brought under control. Immunization can protect you from:
· Blood infection
· Diphtheria
· Ear infection
· Haemophilus influenzae type b
· Hepatitis A
· Hepatitis B
· Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
· Influenza
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