• Question: How do vaccines work?

    Asked by Patricia Call to Carmen, Daniel, Laura, Noel, Steph on 16 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Carmen Denman

      Carmen Denman answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Hi Patricia,

      Vaccines are like a ‘priming’ mechanism for our bodies. By ‘showing’ or presenting a bit or a less bad life version of the pathogenic organism ( a bacteria, fungi, virus, parasite) we can get our immune cells to deal and process the part of the pathogen that is most ‘immunogenic’ (or best to react to) and by the time we might actually be exposed to the pathogen, our bodies will be all ready to go, quickly able to recognize the pathogen as a ‘baddie!’ and mount a successful immune response. That’s what vaccines aim to do!

Comments