There is another sort of immunity that is specific to certain pathogens; active immunity. Let’s look at how that works.
Oh! Yet another destruction task…
Step two: Each pathogen has an antigen with a unique shape attached to it. The body will analyse it.
Step four: These antibodies will destroy pathogens directly or mark them for phagocytes to deal with.
Guess who’s ba- Oh no. That was quick.
Step one: Oh no! A pathogen is identified in the body.
Step five: Memory cells will be created. These store the information required to make antibodies, preventing a later encounter with the same pathogen from harming the body.
Step three: The body will produce proteins called antibodies, which have complementary shapes to the antigens.
That’s so cool! One more question though; What about the diseases that can kill us?
And how exactly does that work?
Exactly! What if our body can’t react fast enough?
I know! Vaccination!
Well, luckily a doctor once discovered that he could inject people with the cowpox to make them immune to smallpox, a similar but way more harmful disease. We now use this method for many diseases. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Vaccination is basically just deliberately infecting someone with a disease to make them immune against it. But it’s a bit more complicated than that.
What’s injected during vaccinations is a harmless version of the disease, usually just it’s antigens.
This gives the body a chance to react without being harmed.