CREATING IMMUNITY

Learning Objectives

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If an individual is immune to a disease, it doesn’t mean that
they won’t be infected by the disease-causing pathogen.
An individual who is immune:
• Produces a rapid, extensive immune response to the
pathogen.
o This involves production of various white blood cells.
• Effectively destroys or neutralises pathogens.
• Does not have symptoms of the disease.
• Can acquire immunity in different ways.

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Types of immunity
NATURAL ARTIFICIAL

PASSIVE:

antibodies
provided
from an
outside
source

ACTIVE:

immune
system
produces
its own
antibodies

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Natural immunity
Achieved through natural processes
Natural passive Natural active
• Baby mammals are • Once you have suffered from
vulnerable to disease due to certain diseases once, you
their small size and develop long-term immunity
unprepared immune system. to them.
• The mother produces a • B memory cells recognise
special milk called colostrum pathogens quickly, and
for newborns, which trigger a massive immune
contains many antibodies. response.
• These pass into the • Immunity is less complete or
bloodstream and attach to doesn’t last as long for
antigens of common pathogens like influenza and
pathogens, stimulating the malaria which mutate quickly
immune system. or shuffle their antigens.

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Artificial immunity
Achieved through medical intervention
Artificial passive
• For urgent cases, antibodies
can be injected directly into
the blood.
• This could be someone:
o with a weakened immune
system.
o who has been cut with
rusty metal, who may
develop tetanus. This is
known as a ‘tetanus shot’.
Artificial active
• A vaccine is an injection of an
attenuated, dead, partial or
genetically modified pathogen.
• This ‘primes’ the immune
system without causing the
symptoms of a disease.
• A future infection will cause an
immune response.
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Vaccination
• Invented by the British doctor,
Edward Jenner, to combat small
pox.
• ‘Vaccine’ comes from the Latin
word vacca, meaning cow.
• Introduction of whole or partial
pathogens into the bloodstream,
typically using a hypodermic
needle.
• Sounds dangerous, but vaccines
save countless lives by injecting
individuals with modified pathogens
that don’t cause disease.
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 What is injected Example(s)

Attenuated (weakened) versions of a

TB, BCG, polio
pathogen

Dead pathogens Whooping cough

Antigens separated from a pathogen Influenza

Genetically engineered antigens

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Cowpox and smallpox
• Cowpox was a relatively mild
illness which lasted a few days.
• Smallpox was a deadly illness
which killed thousands and left
survivors covered in ‘pock marks’-
disfiguring scars across their faces
and bodies.
• Observation of Edward Jenner:
People who suffered from cowpox
never suffered from smallpox later Edward Jenner
in their lives.

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The first vaccine
• Unusual, because it did actually
contain a live pathogen.
• A small incision (cut) was made
in the arms of patients, and used
to inoculate them with pus from
cowpox blisters. Part of a cartoon by nineteenth-
century artist James Gillray,
• The patients who were treated in showing people vaccinated with
cowpox turning into cows!
this way developed cowpox, and
were then immune to smallpox,
even when they were exposed
to it.

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Eradication of smallpox
• Over time, Jenner’s method developed into
something more like the vaccines we know today.
• The cowpox and smallpox pathogens have very
similar antigens.
• The body can ‘recognise’ smallpox from its previous
contact with cowpox.
• Smallpox became the first disease to be eradicated by
science – the last recorded case happened in Somalia
in 1977.

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Vaccination programmes
• The aim of a vaccination programme is to achieve herd
immunity.
• Once enough people are vaccinated, a pathogen’s
transmission rate falls so low that it can’t spread.
• An epidemic cannot break out if each person transmits
the disease to fewer than one person on average.
• Not easy to achieve – usually requires a large majority
(over 80 %) of a population to be vaccinated.
• People may object to vaccination due to medical
concerns, or they may not have access to vaccines in
developing countries.

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© Zi gZag Education, 2020
Herd immunity
• Easiest to achieve with a
concentrated vaccination
programme, which vaccinates
whole cohorts of people.
• The childhood MMR vaccine
provides protection against
measles, mumps and rubella.
• These diseases can have
serious consequences such as
Skin rashes during a
infertility and miscarriages if rubella infection
contracted by adults.

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Other approaches
• It is not possible to create herd immunity for illnesses
like influenza.
• The virus mutates too often and changes its antigens.
• The most effective response is to vaccinate people who
are most at risk (e.g. infants, older people, people with
weakened immune systems).
• For other diseases, medical professionals may carry out
ring vaccination, injecting everyone who has come into
recent contact with a person diagnosed with the
disease.

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Issues with vaccination programmes
• Not always successful in
containing outbreaks of
disease.
• Producing, storing and
delivering vaccines can be
expensive.
• Political issues, e.g. conflict
regions of Pakistan
o Vaccines associated with distrusted
western organisations like the CIA.
o Some people are concerned that
vaccines will harm them, and
choose not to be vaccinated.

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Questions
Q. What is the difference between active
immunity and passive immunity?

Q. Name three things a vaccine may contain.

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Answers
Q. What is the difference between active immunity and passive
immunity?
In active immunity, antibodies are produced by the body when the
immune response is stimulated. In passive immunity, antibodies are
provided from an outside source.

Q. Name three things a vaccine may contain.

• Attenuated versions of a pathogen
• Dead pathogens
• Antigens (separated from a pathogen or genetically engineered)

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