Immune System Vocabulary
A
Asymptomatic – Used to denote infections that never make people feel sick. #asymptomatic
B
Breakthroughs – The term breakthrough has an established history in vaccinology—counting up these events is necessary to know how well inoculations are working in and out of trials.
E
Evidence-based medicine – Medical practice or care that emphasizes the practical application of the findings of the best available current research.
F
Fully vaccinated – To reduce the risk of getting infected or seriously sick with a disease, and decrese the chances that the virus will be passed on to others. Often vaccine effective rates are given as a percentage such as 95% effective. This mean you have a 5% chance of getting the disease. This term is often misunderstood. It takes your body several weeks to become disease resistant after vaccination.
N
Natural immunity – Used it to describe the protection left behind after an infection by a bonafide pathogen.
Q
Quarantine – from Italian meaning 40 days – current meaning – describes the period of time when people who think they’ve been exposed to to an infectious disease are supposed to cloister themselves—a precaution in case an infection manifests. If you have a positive test or symptoms you go into isolation.
P
Polyclonal response – Polyclonal B cell response is a natural mode of immune response exhibited by the adaptive immune system of mammals. It ensures that a single antigen is recognized and attacked through its overlapping parts, called epitopes, by multiple clones of B cell.
V
Vaccine effectiveness – A measure of vaccine effectiveness often given as a percentage based on clinical trials.
Vaccine-acquired immunity – Immunity via a vaccine such as Polio vaccine. this takes place in the days and weeks following a vaccination where the bodies immune system developed antigens to inactivate a pathogen.
Vaccinology – A field recently that has come into existence. An expertise related to the creation and deployment of vaccines. The field ‘borrows’ from epidemiology, immunology, infectious disease, pediatrics, preventive medicine, public health and virology.