Vaccine 7
Vaccine 7 : Medicine. Preparation introduced into the body to cause the production of antibodies to create an immunity to specific diseases and viruses. A drug intended to induce active artificial immunity against a pathogen. Vaccines may be live or dead. Live vaccines are usually attenuated versions of the wildtype pathogen, such as the MMR vaccines, which are strains of measles mumps and rubella viruses repeatedly passaged through cell lines until non-pathogenic. Typically, live vaccines need only be given as a single dose to induce a full immunological response, inducing specific memory. Dead vaccines are either killed whole parasite, as with the Salk polio strain and pertussis vaccine, or some highly immunogenic fraction of the parasite, as in toxoid vaccines. Killed vaccines and toxoids which do not multiply in the host must usually be administered in multiple doses to induce a full immunological response. Vaccination should be distinguished from passive immunization in which concentrated specific antibodies which can be used therapeutically to abrogate an ongoing infection or to provide short term protection (of the order of months), for example against hepatitis A. Passive immunization does not induce immunological memory
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