Vaccination

Remember that white blood cells produce antibodies that are designed to fight particular pathogens.

If they recognise the pathogen
They produce lots of antibodies very quickly that attack the pathogen

If they don't recognise the pathogen
They cant fight it straight away. They have to learn how to. This may take some time and if the pathogen is very dangerous the person may die before they can manufacture effective antobodies.

We can teach our white cells how to fight a disease. We inject people with a small amount of the dead disease or with a similar but less harmful disease. Our white cells learn how to produce effective antibodies so that if the real thing comes along they can respond rapidly.

Vaccination was invented by Edward Jenner. he noticed that milkmaids who got cowpox did not die of the much more deadly small pox.	He discovered that you could protect people against smallpox by vaccinating them with cowpox. They become immune to the disease.	Parents now have the option of having their children vaccinated against many dangerous diseases. Millions of lives have been saved.

REMEMBER

People can be immunised against a disease by introducing small quantities of dead or inactive forms of the pathogen into the body (vaccination). Vaccines stimulate the white blood cells to produce antibodies that destroy the pathogens. This makes the person immune to future infections by the microorganism, because the body can respond by rapidly making the correct antibody, in the same way as if the person had previously had the disease. An example is the MMR vaccine used to protect children against measles, mumps and rubella.