Vaccination (AQA GCSE Biology: Combined Science)

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Why Vaccinate?

  • Vaccination will prevent illness in an individual by providing artificial immunity
  • Vaccination involves exposing an individual to the antigens of a pathogen in some form, triggering an immune response which results in the formation of memory cells which can make antibodies against it
  • If a vaccinated individual is infected with the pathogen, they can destroy it before they become infectious
  • Consequently, vaccines reduce the likelihood that an infected individual will spread the pathogen they have been vaccinated against to others
  • If a large number of the population are vaccinated, it is unlikely that an unvaccinated individual will become infected with the pathogen
  • This is the principle behind the idea of herd immunity
  • There are three main scenarios with vaccination:
    • There are no vaccinations and the disease spreads quickly
    • Some of the population are vaccinated and the disease spreads to less people
    • Most of the population are vaccinated and this prevents the spread

herd-immunityHerd immunity protects the vulnerable that may not be able to have the vaccine

Worldwide vaccination

  • The role of the WHO is to monitor global diseases, they will track if a disease is endemic, epidemic or pandemic
  • The importance of vaccines cannot be underestimated:
    • The number of people with measles worldwide is increasing even though there is a vaccine
    • The increase is due to a drop in the vaccination rate globally – there was some controversy over the MMR vaccine in 1998 and the number of vaccinations dropped significantly after this

  • Vaccines have reduced drastically the cases of diseases worldwide

Vaccination statistics table

Vaccination statistics table, downloadable IGCSE & GCSE Biology revision notes

Data source: ourworldindata.org/vaccination

Advantages & disadvantages of vaccination table

Advantages and disadvantages of vaccination table, downloadable IGCSE & GCSE Biology revision notes

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How do Vaccines Work?

  • Vaccination involves introducing small quantities of dead or inactive forms of a pathogen into the body to stimulate the white blood cells to produce antibodies
  • If the same pathogen re-enters the body the white blood cells respond quickly to produce the correct antibodies, preventing infection

 

Vaccination, IGCSE & GCSE Biology revision notes

The process of long-term immunity by vaccination

  • There are two types of immunity:
    • Active immunity that comes from the body creating antibodies to a disease either by exposure to the disease (natural) or by vaccination (artificial)
    • Passive immunity that comes from antibodies given to you from another organism, for example in breast milk

  • With the measles vaccine, for example, vaccination with a weakened form of the measles virus results in the production of antibodies and memory cells
  • When exposed to the virus naturally and infected, an individual can produce a higher concentration of antibodies much more quickly to destroy it

  Vaccination graph, downloadable IGCSE & GCSE Biology revision notes

Graph showing the number of measles antibodies in the blood following vaccination and infection

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Lára

Author: Lára

Expertise: Biology Lead

Lára graduated from Oxford University in Biological Sciences and has now been a science tutor working in the UK for several years. Lára has a particular interest in the area of infectious disease and epidemiology, and enjoys creating original educational materials that develop confidence and facilitate learning.