Medical Assisting - Vaccines

Innate Immunity

Present at birth; non-specific (generalized immunity)

• EX: Skin, mucus, cilia, stomach acid

• Fast response

Acquired/Adaptive Immunity

Develops over time or from exposure; very specific—targets a specific pathogen

• Can be active or passive

Active

The body creates the necessary anti-bodies to fight off pathogens

Passive

Anti-body is injected or passed on from breast milk into the body to fight off pathogen

Vaccine

Biological preparation that teaches the immune system to recognize and fight specific diseases caused by bacteria or viruses.

Live Attenuated

Type of Vaccine:

• Contains a weakened form of the live virus or bacterium

EX: MMR and Varicella

Inactivated

Type of Vaccine:

• Contains a killed or inactive form of the virus or bacterium

EX: Polio, Influenza, and Hep A

Subunit/Recombinant

Type of Vaccine:

• Contains a specific part of the pathogen (protein or polysaccharide)

EX: Pnemococoul, HPV, Hep B

Toxoid

Type of Vaccine:

• Contain a toxin produced by the virus or bacterium

EX: Tetanus, diphtheria

mRNA

Type of Vaccine:

• Uses mRNA to transport the body’s cells to produce proteins that resemble the pathogen, stimulating the immune response

EX: Aizer, moderna ← COVID-19

Viral Vector

Type of Vaccine:

• Uses a harmless virus to carry genetic material into the body, which then produces proteins that stimulate an immune response against the target pathogen

EX: Johnson and Johnson, Astra Zeneca ← COVID-19

Smallpox

A highly contagious and deadly disease caused by the varicella virus

• First disease to be eradicated (1980) through a vaccine

• Symptoms: fever, headache, backache, nausea, rash that spreads

Edward Jenner (1796)

• Scratched a cowpox pustule and created a vaccine to fight against smallpox

• Variolation across England—the creation of vaccines began

Louis Pasteur (Father of Bacteriology)

• Treated milk/beer/win to prevent growth of bacteria by pasteurization

EX: Chicken Cholera, Attenuated vaccine, anthrax, and rabies

Polio

An illness caused by a virus that affects nerves in the spinal cord

• Still around, just not as common

• Symptoms: Fever, headache, fatigue, vomiting, stiffness in neck, and pain in the limbs

• President FDR had this disease

Iron Lung

A structure that artificially breathes for the patient

Altering pressure helps patient breathe:

• Lowered: Air is drawn in

• Increase: Air is forced out of the lungs

Jonas Salk

Developed the first successful polio vaccine

• La Jolla, Salk Institute

Teranus (Lockjaw)

a serious disease of the nervous system caused by a toxin-producing bacterium (crostidriam tetani)

• Found in soil, dust, animal manure, rusty metal

• Not contagious; toxins create muscular spasms that can break bones

• Signs: muscular spasms, locked jaw, fever, sweating, irritability, and nerve damage

• Treatment: Toxoid vaccine

Diphtheria (Corynebacterium diptherime)

a serious bacterial infection that usually affects the mucous membranes of the nose and throat.

• Highly contagious—treated with toxoid vaccine

• Two types: Respiratory and Cutaneous (skin)

• Signs: Sore throat, swollen glands in the neck, low-grade fever, can be difficult to breathe, thick gray membrane covering throat/tonsils, and scaly rash or sores