Question

The treatment of snakebite by antivenom is an example of
a. Artificially acquired active immunity
b. Artificially acquired passive immunity
c. Naturally acquired passive immunity
d. None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: Antivenom is the biological products which are used to treat the snake bites of venom snakes, they consist of antibodies which are usually produced by injecting the venom to the animals such as horse and after immunization, the blood with antibodies are collected as they are used as Antivenom.

Complete answer:
- In order to produce the antibodies from the host cells, different types of snake’s venom are exposed to the host body, because of this, an immunological reaction takes place in the and they produce neutralizing antibodies to this different venom’s.
- The host bodies are given with different types of snake venoms in the range of non-lethal dose based on the antigen used in the production of Antivenom, they are classified as monovalent and polyvalent.
- If the Antivenom is obtained by hyper immunizing the host with a single species of snake venom, then that type of Antivenom is considered monovalent.
- If the Antivenom consists of two or more neutralizing antibodies due to the injection of venom of different species of snakes, then it is said to be polyvalent.
- When coming to immunity, if the immunity is acquired naturally by the body due to exposure to any foreign organisms, then it is said to be natural immunity.
- While when it comes to artificial immunity, it is of 2 types, they are active and passive.
- Artificial active immunity is produced directly by giving a small level of antigen to the recipient’s body.
- Artificial passive immunity means, here the antigen is given to some animals, where they produce antibodies, those antibodies are collected and injected to the required person.

Hence, The correct answer is option (B), Artificially acquired passive immunity.

Note: There is a lot of difference between the active and passive forms of immunity such as, in the case of active the effect is long term, while in the case of passive immunization the effect is short term as the memory cells are not produced in this type.