Vaccines & Preventable Diseases:
Vaccines: The Basics
Vaccines contain the same germs that cause disease. (For example, measles vaccine contains measles virus, and Hib vaccine contains Hib bacteria.) But they have been either killed or weakened to the point that they don’t make you sick. Some vaccines contain only a part of the disease germ.
A vaccine stimulates your immune system to produce antibodies, exactly like it would if you were exposed to the disease. After getting vaccinated, you develop immunity to that disease, and you don’t have to get sick.
This is what makes vaccines such powerful medicine. Unlike most medicines, which treat or cure diseases, vaccines prevent them.
For more than the basics, see:
- Understanding vaccines & their purpose
- How Vaccines Prevent Disease
- Vaccine safety basics
- Demos - See in action
- How Vaccines Work
Source: History of Vaccines - Types of Vaccines
Source: History of Vaccines - How Vaccines are Made
Source: History of Vaccines - How the Vaccinated Protect the Unvaccinated
Source: History of Vaccines - How vaccines work
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Excerpt from Parent's Guide to Immunizations - How Vaccines Prevent Disease
- Ingredients of Vaccines - Fact Sheet
- List of all vaccines used in United States
- Photos of vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases
- Vaccination Schedules
- History of vaccines: Lesson plans
Source: History of Vaccines - Vaccines for Uninsured Children
See also:
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Content last reviewed on February 15, 2011
Content Source: National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases