Vaccines
OVERVIEW
Vaccines are usually made up of weakened or killed versions of a disease-causing germ (or parts of it) – these are called antigens. When a vaccine is administered, the immune system in the body reacts the same way it would if real germs entered the body; it begins to create antibodies. The immune system then remembers the germ(s) and how to destroy them, ensuring that if the body is exposed to it again, it can protect and avoid you from getting sick. This is how the body builds immunity.
Vaccines are an important and safe way to keep us healthy, and protect us from serious and sometimes life-threatening diseases. They are life-saving, and some of the most effective methods in disease prevention, with some vaccines able to offer lifelong immunity.
Vaccines
Vaccines are preventative medications that are created to help protect people from serious and often deadly diseases. Vaccines work by producing immunity (protection) within the body so it can learn how to fight diseases or illnesses it has not contracted before. Vaccines can be taken via a shot, orally, or through the nose (spray).
RELATED INFORMATION
Vaccine Types
When vaccines are being developed, scientists take into consideration who the vaccine is for, how the immune system will respond, and what the best way to create the vaccine may be. Based on this, there are 4 main types of vaccines:
- Live-attenuated vaccines (chicken pox, measles, mumps, rubella)
- Inactivated vaccines (flu, hepatitis a, rabies, polio)
- Subunit, recombinant, polysaccharide, and conjugate vaccines (hepatitis b, shingles, HPV)
- Toxoid vaccines (diphtheria, tetanus)
Vaccine Types
Chicken Pox
Diphtheria
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
HPV
Influenza/Flu
Measles
Meningococcal disease
Mumps
Pneumococcal disease
Polio
Rabies
Rotavirus
Rubella
Shingles
Smallpox
Tetanus
Whooping Cough (Pertussis)
Yellow Fever