Vaccines

Vaccines

A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease and resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or attenuated or killed forms of the microbes, their toxins, or one of its surface proteins. 

Vaccines “teach” our body how to defend itself when viruses or bacteria, invade it. Vaccines deliver only very little amounts of inactivated or weakened viruses or bacteria, or parts of them. This allows the immune system to recognize the organism without actually experiencing the disease. Some vaccines need to be given more than once (i.e., a ‘booster’ vaccination) to make sure the immune system can overcome a real infection in the future Vaccine initiates the immunization process. The vaccines are classified as first, second and third generation vaccines.

First generation vaccine is further subdivided into live attenuated vaccine, killed vaccine and toxoids (Fig. 8.9). Live attenuated vaccines use the weakened (attenuated), aged, less virulent form of the virus. E.g. Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and the Varicella (chickenpox) vaccine, Killed (inactivated) vaccines are killed or inactivated by heat and other methods. E.g. Salk’s polio vaccine. Toxoid vaccines contain a toxin or chemical secreted by the bacteria or virus. They make us immune to the harmful effects of the infection, instead of to the infection itself. E.g. DPT vaccine (Diphtheria, Pertussis and Tetanus).

Second generation vaccine contains the pure surface antigen of the pathogen. E.g.Hepatitis-B vaccine. Third generation vaccine contains the purest and the highest potency vaccines which are synthetic in generation. The latest revolution in vaccine is DNA vaccine or recombinant vaccine (Refer Chapter- 10 for details).