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to get sick. The medicines are therapeutic, adults, this microorganism becomes active
they are curative. Therefore, they are again. What happens is that we have a disease
administered when the disease is already caused by the same virus.
installed. Although there are prophylactic
drugs, with the objective of being administered When the vaccine consists of a set of
to prevent the disease from happening, they sleeping pathogens, is there a risk of some
apply mainly to non-infectious diseases. “waking up” and able to trigger the disease?
No. Unless the vaccines have been poorly
To differentiate vaccines from other medications, developed. It can happen; however, all vaccines
the common types of vaccines are listed here: are extensively tested.
• Attenuated microorganisms – attenuated If a person is infected and then takes the
viruses. They do not cause a disease, but vaccine, is it no longer effective? But could
cause a response, the memory response. you avoid a second contamination?
• Living microorganisms’ fragments – composed This happens for most diseases, such as
of a portion of the virus and a portion of the bacteria. hepatitis. However, some studies for the HPV
(human papillomavirus) vaccine say that even
• Inactive toxins – part of the bacteria that has if a person is infected with HPV with a less
been studied and inactivated and therefore serious type of virus, if they take the vaccine
is part of a vaccine. This toxin causes a later and is infected with a more serious type
response when one is in contact with a real it can be effective. Therefore, it depends on
microorganism, complete and activated. the type of virus and the type of disease and
vaccine.
There are also the combination vaccines, that is,
in the same ampoule/injection there are several Does the vaccine prevent you from
vaccines that can be administered together. contracting the disease or developing the
This process allows less administration, less symptoms of the disease?
pain and more saving of resources.
The peculiarity of the vaccine lies precisely in
Do vaccines eliminate the pathology or just the fact that it also prevents the carrier status.
leave it asleep, and can it become more The vaccinated person comes into contact
resistant and manifest stronger symptoms with the pathogen, but the latter does not even
again? have time to take root and therefore is not
even housed in the organism of the vaccinated
It depends on the diseases. For instance, person.
measles, if we only have one dose of measles
and if we are infected, we will hardly develop Why is a “booster”, i.e., a second dose
the most serious forms of the disease. We given, for some vaccines?
may develop the mild forms of the disease. It
is known that with two doses it is a very rare Let’s take an example with the measles
occurrence. Another example is chickenpox. vaccine. With the first dose, about 95% of
However, it is said that you only get it once children develop an immune response. To
in childhood, but there is another disease reach the remaining 5%, a second dose is
(shingles) that can manifest in adults and is needed to make the antibodies develop with
caused by the same virus as chickenpox. In certainty. Reinforcement is also needed to
other words, our cells became infected, the maintain long-term effects.
virus lays dormant and suddenly, when we are
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