Fascinating Facts about Vaccinations. PDF Print E-mail
Vaccination, common practice for over a century now, has saved countless lives. But how do vaccines work?


IMAGINE YOUR BODY AS ONE HUGE LIFELONG PARTY in which every single individual (cell) has a part to play. Each type of cell has a different shape and structure but all carry an ID badge showing that they’re part of you and therefore have a right to be at your party. Your White Blood Cells are the bouncers at your party, permanently circulating, checking badges, watching for non-you gatecrashers like viruses or bacteria.

When the bouncers come across an unknown badge, it takes time to process it but once it has been established that the badge belongs to a gatecrasher, the alarm is raised and the search begins for other gatecrashers with that non-you ID badge. With internal infections the ensuing battle causes our temperature to rise but, if the battle is confined to just a local area e.g. a few invaders trying to sneak in through a skin-pore (pimples and boils), then the temperature rises only in that area; the swelling and redness are because there’s a local increase in blood supply, to push reinforcements to of bouncers to the scene. Pus, the corpses of invaders and your late, brave bouncers killed in the line of duty, is creamy/white because your bouncers are the White Blood Cells.

Some gatecrashers are really dangerous – they hide themselves away, or arrive in large numbers, or multiply very quickly – and, by the time your bouncers have checked their badges, it may be too late; your party could be spoiled or even over!
Vaccines eliminate this perilous time-lag between invasion and response.

In the laboratory, a dangerous germ is either killed or rendered harmless, but its ID badge is left intact. When you’re given this ‘vaccine’ your bouncers can process at leisure. Then, if the real germ turns up, it is recognised at once: the alarm is raised and all-out battle is commences before the virulent invader can even get a toehold.