Active and Passive Immunity

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Chelsea Howe

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I am going to look at the two types of immunisation; passive and active. Immunisation is very important to each individual and the community; it helps fight serious diseases such as polio, measles and many more disorders.

Active immunity is process in which the body makes antibodies that are made to destroy invading antigens; this can be done either artificially or naturally. An antigen is a substance that prompts the body to produce antibodies to fight a disease.

 Artificial Immunisation is when a substance is artificially passed into the body, usually by injection; this is known as a vaccine. The vaccine encourages the immune system to produce particular antibodies that will fight off the disease. Antibodies are the proteins that are produced by the body to neutralise the disease or even destroy the disease completely. The vaccines contain very minute amounts of the disease that have been weakened or killed so they cause minimal harm to the body, this is called attenuation. Attenuating a vaccine can be done using many things such as; chemicals, heat, radioactivity or antibiotics. When a disease, that a person has not been vaccinated against enters the body the antigens multiplies thousands and thousands of times until the body is infected, whereas when the person has been vaccinated the viruses usually reproduce themselves fewer than 20 times. Due to the fact that the virus or bacteria does not multiply greatly, it does not cause any, or very little, harm. B cells are part of the immune system and a type of lymphocyte which creates antibodies. When the vaccine in injected into the body the immune system recognises that there are foreign substances present, the virus or bacteria, also known as the antigens. Once the immune system is able to identify the antigen it then produces proteins, called antibodies. Antibodies are made by white blood cells called B lymphocytes. The main purpose of a B cell is to fight against disease. The antibodies then fight the infection by killing of the antigens. Using the memory B and T cells the body is able to remember the antigen and how to create the antibody. This means that the body is then able to make the antibody quickly to make sure that they are well prepared to fight the disease if they ever come into contact with it again. Each disease has its own antibody so the immune system has to create a new antibody for every new disease that it comes into contact with.

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Natural Immunisation is similar to artificial immunisation; the difference is that the person has naturally come into contact with the disease, not via a vaccine. When the body comes into contact with the disease it is swallowed by the phagocyte, a white blood cell, to destroy the disease. Part of the disease, the antigen, rises to the surface of the phagocyte which then presents the antigen to the T cell which then creates a specific antibody that fights the disease. The memory B and T cells are then created to fight the disease if the body ever comes into contact ...

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