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How do vaccines work? Do they work against viruses and bacteria? Why there

are so many vaccines.

User Nyron
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1 Answer

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Answer:

Vaccines train our immune systems to create proteins that fight disease, known as ‘antibodies’, just as would happen when we are exposed to a disease but – crucially – vaccines work without making us sick. Live, attenuated vaccines fight viruses and bacteria. These vaccines

contain a version of the living virus or bacteria that has been weakened

so that it does not cause serious disease in people with healthy immune

systems. Because live, attenuated vaccines are the closest thing to a

natural infection, they are good teachers for the immune system.

Examples of live, attenuated vaccines include measles, mumps, and

rubella vaccine (MMR) and varicella (chickenpox) vaccine. Even

though they are very effective, not everyone can receive these vaccines.

Children with weakened immune systems—for example, those who are

undergoing chemotherapy—cannot get live vaccines. Those are only some vaccines, of course not all vaccines inject a live virus into your body. And of course, there are so many vaccines because (unfortunately) there are so many diseases!

User Sachin Muthumala
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