Traded Places
My blogs
| Industry | Arts |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Pianist |
| Location | Scunthorpe, England, United Kingdom |
| Links | Wishlist |
| Introduction | Wikipedia gives us a nice simple definition of what a vaccine is: ‘A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular disease.’ That helps somewhat. It is biological – made from something found in nature – and it is connected to a particular disease. So it is not like a tonic or an aspirin. But what is particular about what a vaccine does? What is ‘active acquired immunity’? Though vaccination isn’t the only tool used in protecting the health of communities, it has become an increasingly important one. Vaccination schedules are becoming more and more complex as one new vaccine after another is added. Many of the vaccines routinely offered to children today are quite new. For example, in the USA varicella (chickenpox) vaccine has been recommended since 1996, vaccination against hepatitis A since 2000, and pneumococcal vaccine since 2001. In September 2015 the UK began to provide the vaccine against meningitis B to two-month-old babies. |