TITLE: immune system (physiology)SECTION:
Active immunization aims to ensure that a sufficient supply of antibodies or T and B cells that react against a potential infectious agent or toxin are present in the body before infection occurs or the toxin is encountered. Once it has been primed, the immune system either can prevent the pathogen from establishing itself or can rapidly mobilize the various protective mechanisms described...
Active immunization stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies against a particular infectious agent. Active immunity can arise naturally, as when someone is exposed to a pathogen. For example, an individual who recovers from a first case of the measles is immune to further infection by the measles-causing virus, because the virus stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies that...
TITLE: antimicrobial agent (pharmacology)SECTION:
...agents, are added to certain foods and medicines to prevent the growth of microorganisms that may cause spoilage or disease. Prophylactics also are agents used to prevent infections and diseases. Vaccination is the administration of harmless amounts of disease-causing microorganisms into animals, including humans, to prevent diseases. Sterile...
biological weapon defense
viral infectious diseases
TITLE: infectious diseaseSECTION:
...that require the machinery of living cells to replicate. Viruses are visible by electron microscopy; they vary in size from about 25 nanometres for poliovirus to 250 nanometres for smallpox virus. Vaccination has been the most successful weapon against viral infection; some infections may be treated with antiviral drugs or interferon (proteins that interfere with viral proliferation).
TITLE: influenza (disease)SECTION:
Treatment and prevention
Individual protection against the flu may be bolstered by injection of a vaccine containing two or more circulating influenza viruses. These viruses are produced in chick embryos and rendered noninfective; standard commercial preparations ordinarily include the type B influenza virus and several of the A subtypes. Protection from one vaccination seldom lasts more than a year, and yearly...
TITLE: malaria (pathology)SECTION:
Diagnosis and treatment
International efforts have been under way for decades to produce a malaria vaccine. A major challenge in malaria vaccine development is the complex life cycle of Plasmodium. An effective vaccine presumably would need to contain antigens from each of the parasites’ different life-cycle stages and thereby elicit a broad immune response against the organisms. However, the parasites’ surface...
Active immunization with rabies vaccine should also be initiated to allow the patient’s body to make its own antibody. The safest and most effective vaccines are human diploid cell vaccine (HDCV), purified chick embryo cell culture (PCEC), and rabies vaccine adsorbed (RVA). With older vaccines, at least 16 injections were required, whereas with HDCV, PCEC, or RVA, 5 are usually sufficient....