The key takeaways of this chapter are:
- Immunity is the capacity of the body to resist pathogens.
- There are several types of immunity, including innate immunity, passive immunity, and acquired/active immunity.
- Vaccination is a safe and effective way to achieve acquired immunity.
- Community immunity (also known as herd immunity) refers to protection from contagious disease that an individual gains as a result of living in a community where a critical number of people are vaccinated.
- More than 90% of the population needs to be immune in order to protect those who are not eligible to be vaccinated.
- The more analogous the vaccine is to the original disease-causing pathogen, the greater the body’s immune response.
- Vaccine components are extremely safe and are important to enhance effectiveness, preserve and stabilize the vaccine, prevent unwanted contamination, and detoxify or inactivate the live germ or toxin in some vaccines.