Chapter 18, Problem 4MC

Summary Introduction

Introduction:

A vaccine is defined as a preparation of bacterial, viral, or other pathogenic agents or their isolated peptides, which is administered with the objective of eliciting the recipient’s immunity. They are generally categorized into attenuated and inactivated vaccines. In attenuated vaccines, the immune response eliciting agentsare the weakened pathogens that cannot cause disease. They replicate in the recipient’s body and cause mild infection, which usually cannot be detected and elicits an immune response providing long-lasting immunity. Inactivated vaccines have inactivated pathogens as immune response eliciting agent. These agents do not replicate in therecipient’s body.

Immunosuppressed individuals are those individuals that have diminished immune response to antigens due to varied reasons ranging from systematic illness to immunosuppressive treatments. Measles is a viral infection caused by approximately 21 different strains of thevirus. The most common symptoms seen during a measles infection are adry cough, regular sneezing, and watery eyes. The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine are usually administered to prevent measles.