A vaccine is a biological preparation designed to provide immunity against specific diseases.
It contains weakened, inactive, or non-disease-causing forms of a pathogen, or fragments of it, which stimulate the immune system to recognize and respond to the actual pathogen.
This process triggers the production of antibodies and the activation of immune cells, preparing the body to fight off the disease if exposed in the future. Vaccines play a crucial role in preventing infectious diseases and have contributed significantly to the control and eradication of numerous illnesses globally.
Vaccination protects individuals from infections of many diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis and poliomyelitis. Diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis and tetanus were killer diseases but this is no longer the case.
Diphtheria Pertussis Tetanus (DPT) vaccine protects children against diphtheria, whooping cough and tetanus. Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) vaccine is injected at birth to children to protect them against tuberculosis.
Measles used to be a killer disease but today, a vaccine injected into children at the age of rune months prevents it. At birth children are given an inoculation through the mouth of the poliomyelitis vaccine.