Vaccination&antibiotics

How does vaccination work?

Vaccination introduces small quantities of dead/ inactive forms of a pathogen into the body, stimulating WBC to produce antibodies (as they have antigens.)

Describe how vaccination protects someone from future infection.

If the same pathogen re-enters the body, WBC respond quickly (because of memory lymphocytes) to produce the right antibodies, preventing infection

How do vaccines help protect a large population from disease?

When a large proportion of population is vaccinated, it’s harder for pathogen to spread, as there are less ppl to infect. This prevent big outbreaks of disease (epidemics). This is called herd immunity.

What are antibiotics and how do they work?

Antibiotics, e.g. penicillin are medicines that help cure bacterial disease by killing infective bacteria inside the body. Specific bacteria must be treated by specific anti-bodies.

How has the use of antibiotics helped us?

Use of antibiotics has greatly reduced deaths from infectious bacterial diseases

What does it mean when we say that antibiotic resistance is a concern?

It means that some bacteria have evolved into new strains that antibiotics can no longer kill, making infections harder to treat.

Explain what antibiotic resistance is

Antibiotic resistance occurs when mutations of bacterial pathogens (from rapid reproduction) produce new strains that are resistant to antibiotics, they survive and reproduce. This makes it harder to treat infections

Why are antibiotics/painkillers not effective against viral pathogens?

Antibiotics/painkillers treat the symptoms of disease. It is difficult to develop drugs that kill viruses without also damaging the body’s tissues.