by Leah Woods

Created on: May 30, 2008   Last Updated: March 23, 2011

Influenza A Preventable Problem

A shot in the arm can save your life, save you money, and may even save the lives of those around you. Universal influenza vaccination has this potential for benefit. The general feeling within our society is that healthy people between the approximate ages of 5-50 years old, the "low-risk" group, should not be vaccinated against influenza. However, influenza is capable of killing any one of us.

Vaccination is a safe, effective, and natural defence against influenza because it makes use of the natural processes of the body's immune system. The basis behind vaccinations is the production of "memory cells". An immune response is triggered when a foreign substance (antigen) is presented to a particular immune response cell (lymphocyte) that recognizes the antigen. The lymphocyte then begins production of antibodies to fight off the foreign invader.

However, there is a period of about five days between when the antigen enters the body to when the antibody production begins. This lag time is because the antigen must contact one specific cell in a million cells that will recognize and bind it. In the case of some antigens, the specific immune response cell will divide after binding the antigen, and produce "memory cells", or clones of itself. These memory cells improve the chance of cell-antigen interaction to one in one thousand cells.

Vaccinations work on this basis. A vaccination is the initial presentation of an antigen. The body produces memory cells against the virus vaccinated for and, if the live virus is later contracted, the lag time for the production of antibodies is reduced. By reducing the lag time the body overcomes the virus more quickly.

Generally, if a person contracts a virus once then the same virus will not affect them a second time. This is because they have been naturally vaccinated against the virus, their body has produced memory cells for that virus. In the case of a virus such as influenza, which is constantly changing form, if a person contracts and fights off a live virus (rather than being vaccinated), then they will have memory cells against only that single strain of influenza and could easily contract another strain. The flu vaccination, however, will cause production of memory cells against all strains of the flu predicted to be a problem each year.

Universal vaccination can save money by reducing the number of days of work missed due to illness and by reducing the amount of money put into healthcare

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>