All About Viruses and Bacteria
Vaccine Development
Diffrent Developing Vaccines
Preventing disease is always better treating it, and that is why vaccines are an effective weapon against illnesses like the flu. Vaccines allow your body to create antibodies to fight off that strain of the flu or illness it was made for. How do they make these vaccines though? There are multiple ways that we will look at now. All they methods that are used to make vaccines all revolve around a common theme, that all revolve around getting your body to produce its own antibodies to fight the sickness. There are four basic ways to create a vaccine. The first is to use a weakened virus. Scientist weakens the virus before putting it into a vaccine. The weakened virus can not reproduce as well as a healthy one and therefore can not spread and infect you. Your body does not recognize the virus as weakened, but as healthy and creates antibodies. The weakened virus dies quickly, but your body now has the knowledge it needs to create antibodies for that sickness or disease. This is the most effect form of vaccine because it gives you a life long immunity to that specific virus or strain, but it can not be given to people who have weaken immune systems from other sicknesses like HIV or AIDS. The next way to make a vaccine is by using an inactive virus. The virus is in a dead like state when used in the vaccine. Scientist "kill" the virus with a chemical of some sort, that way there is no way the virus can reproduce at all. The body will still recognize the dead virus and create antibodies to fight it. The body though will not create enough antibodies to last a life time therefore more than one vaccine will eventually be needed. This type of vaccine though is safe for everyone since there is no possible way for it to make you sick. People with weakened immune systems can get these vaccines with no risks at all. The third type of vaccine is one that uses only part of a virus. There is only one vaccine that is developed today to work this way, but there may be more in the future. This vaccine removes the part of the virus that can make you sick, but leaves the essential parts needed for your body to produce antibodies. The last type of vaccine is for bacteria only. Some bacteria cause you to become sick by releasing toxins into your body. This vaccine releases anti-toxins into your body to stop the toxin from working. Once a toxin is neutralized it is called a toxoid. Vaccines for diphtheria and tetanus are made this way. Vaccines are a very affected tool in stopping illness and disease. If you are not yet vaccinated for the flu or any other type of sickness, you should go and get one now.
