bio essay on vaccines

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A vaccine is a manufactured drug, that helps your body fight of certain diseases, a vaccine is usually made by using a weak version of the virus or illness that is taken into the body so that your white blood cells can get trained for when the actual threat comes. The website www.wikipedia.com defines a virus as "A biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins." The first ever vaccine was created at around 1796 by a man named Edward Jenner who created a vaccine for smallpox by using cowpox. He did this by observing that those who have had cowpox couldn’t get smallpox. He tested it first on an eight year old infant where he infected him with cowpox and once he was cured he infected him with smallpox and the child did not show symptoms. This procedure was not so risky because the effects of cowpox were not fatal but smallpox was. Vaccines these days have evolved mainly because of the introduction of microscopes and biological engineering into the medicine fields. There are three types of vaccines used these days live or attenuated vaccine, killed vaccines and toxoid vaccine.

Live or attenuated vaccine is a vaccine made by weakening or even removing the harmful parts of a pathogen or virus. This type of vaccine is used as a practice round of sorts to help the bodies immune system develop a way to fight the inert pathogen before an active one invades the body.These vaccines are made by passing through foreign hosts for example Tissue culture,Embryonated eggs and Live animals.Examples of these vaccines are measles vaccin...

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...cal, -. -., -. "What Are Vaccines?" What Are Vaccines? News Medical, -. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. .

* Who, -. -., -. "Vaccines." WHO. WHO, -. Web. 08 Feb. 2014. .

* Wikipedia, -. -., -. "Attenuated Vaccine." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Feb. 2014. .

* Wikipedia, -. -., -. "Inactivated Vaccine." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. .

* Wikipedia, -. -., -. "Toxoid." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Feb. 2014. .

* Wikipedia, -. -., -. "Vaccine." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Jan. 2014. Web. 06 Feb. 2014. .

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