Immunisation

Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual is exposed to an agent that is designed to fortify his or her immune system against that agent. The material is known as an immunogen. Immunization is the same as inoculation and vaccination in that inoculation and vaccination use a viable infecting agent like immunization does. Immunization is just the general term for vaccination and such things as what you gain from these process. When the human immune system is exposed to a disease once, it can develop the ability to quickly respond to a subsequent infection. Therefore, by exposing an individual to an immunogen in a controlled way, their body will then be able to protect itself from infection later on in life.

Contents [hide]

1 History of immunization

2 Required immunizations upon entry to school

3 Passive and Active Immunization

4 Passive Immunization

5 Active Immunization

[edit] History of immunization

While the more primitive form of inoculation was practised long before the invention of immunization, the inventor of the more sophisticated process of immunization was a British doctor, Edward Jenner.

Jenner noticed the similarity between the lethal smallpox virus, which was currently devastating England, and the harmless cowpox virus. It is believed that this was discovery was influenced by the old-wives-tale of dairymaids being immune to Smallpox.

By injecting a human with the cowpox virus (which was harmless to humans), Jenner swiftly found that the immunized human was then