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What Is Immunization?

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Hint: When you get ill, your body makes antibodies to combat your illness to help you get healthier. These antibodies will remain in your body long after the illness is gone, which will prevent you from having the same illness again. It's called immunity.

Complete step by step answer: Immunization is also called vaccination that protects people from disease by administering a vaccine to the body that activates an immune response, almost as if you were naturally exposed to the disease. The vaccine contains the same antigens or parts of the antigens that cause the disease, but the antigens in the vaccines are either destroyed or seriously weakened. Vaccines function because they trick the body into believing that the real illness is being targeted.
Immunity by immunisation occurs without the effects of becoming sick and without the possibility of life-threatening complications from the disease. When a person is immunised, unique immune cells called memory cells avoid reinfection when they experience the disease again in the future. Not all vaccines, however, have lifetime immunity. Vaccines such as tetanus vaccine need booster doses every 10 years for adults to preserve immunity.

Additional Information: Vaccination offers the longest-lasting, most effective defence against disease at any age. Vaccine-preventable diseases can be dangerous and can cause life-threatening complications that can lead to hospitalisation in some situations. This is of special concern to babies and young children, who are especially vulnerable. Having children vaccinated on time is vital and helps to ensure that they obtain the protection they need to prevent diseases as soon as possible before they are exposed to them.

Note: Immunization is essential, not just in childhood, but also in adulthood, to help create positive ageing. It's because childhood immunisation does not offer lifetime immunity to such diseases such as tetanus (lockjaw) and diphtheria. Adults need helpers or boosters to preserve immunity. Adult vaccines may also be meant to protect against diseases common to adults such as shingles.