• Question: What are Vaccines made of?

    Asked by Maria13 to Steph, Carmen on 10 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by Jose-Osuna.
    • Photo: Stephanie Dyson

      Stephanie Dyson answered on 10 Mar 2015:

      Vaccines are made of small amounts of weakened or dead bacteria or other antigens to generate a small immune response which is why after a flu jab people sometimes feel ill while their bodies fight off a weak version of the full condition

    • Photo: Carmen Denman

      Carmen Denman answered on 16 Mar 2015:

      Great answer, Stephanie! I will only add that often a vaccine is made up with another component, called an adjuvant. So you have one component, like Steph mentioned with the weakened or heat-killed bacteria bacteria, or bit of protein or toxin (antigen) but an adjuvant is often added to ‘spark’ our immune responses to take notice immediately of the vaccination and process the signal accordingly. An adjuvant is a substance that is added to a vaccine to increase the body’s immune response to the vaccine, and it can be something simple like a salt, or something slightly toxic like lipidA (part of a bacteria that is connected to virulence). It might seem like a bad thing to have an adjuvant, but they are clearly shown to improve protection and long-term immunity as a boost to the other component(s) of the vaccine.

      Cheers!

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