02.06 Antimicrobial Vaccinations

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Today we’re going to be talking about Antimicrobial vaccinations.

 

In this lesson on antimicrobial vaccinations we will discuss pathogenic microbes in humans, the role of vaccines, examples of vaccinations and lastly the concept of herd immunity.


 

There are four main categories of microbes that are pathogenic to humans. Viruses, which are non-living, species specific, that require a host cell in order to replicate. Some common examples of viruses pathogenic to humans are hepatitis, chicken pox and whooping cough. Next up are bacteria, which are single-celled organisms that divide quickly, there are types with and without cell walls. Examples include tetanus (lock jaw)  and pneumococcus. Then we have the group of microbes that call fungi


 

These organisms are single-celled and multicellular. Their cell walls are made of chitin. Examples include athlete’s foot and yeast infections. And lastly there are the protists, These organisms can be single or multicellular and have a nucleus Examples of protists that are pathogenic are malaria, African sleeping sickness, amoebic dysentery and Giardiasis.


 

So in light of the idea that there are many microbes that can make humans sick, vaccinations came about to help prevent illness. Vaccines work through the  injection of a dead/attenuated version of the pathogen's antigens. This triggers the immune system to create memory cells and begin antibody production through acquired immune response. Thus the primary role of vaccinations- is to expose immune system to antigens from pathogens in order to produce a faster and stronger immune response. This graph her shows the rate of antibody production after the initial exposure and then after the body’s secondary expose. You can see the rate of increase for the secondary exposure is faster and much stronger. SInce the immune system had intel on what the “bad guy” looked like the response time was much faster and much. much more powerful.  Consider the primary response is what occurs when a vaccine is administered in hopes for the body to be prepared should it ever be exposed to the real thing .


And lastly We are going to discuss the idea of herd immunity.  And this graphic does a nice job of visualizing vaccinations make a difference. So the top row shows a population in purple that are not immunized but are healthy, and with a few infected it spreads throughout the entire population over time ( the people in red). So the fewer people vaccinated the more people are likely to get sick. In the next row we have a population that only as a few immunized and the disease still spread the majority of the population. The last row has an initial population that is primarily vaccinated and overtime most of the disease is contained. This concept  helps protect those that are weak , vulnerable from being exposed in the first place.

So in review, vaccines are designed to prevent individuals from contracting a pathogenic microbe whether it is viral or bacterial. There are many examples of childhood vaccinations designed to keep us safe, from protecting us against viruses such as polio and chicken pox and bacterial infections like tetanus and pneumococcus. And lastly herd immunity means the more individuals that are vaccinated in a given population the safer our most vulnerable individuals are.

 

 

 


 

 


 
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