What is a vaccination? How do they benefit individuals? Is there any harm that can come from receiving a vaccine? A vaccination is defined as the injection of a killed or weakened infectious organism in order to prevent the disease. Scientists make vaccines by first making the pathogen, or disease-causing microbe, in mass amounts in a laboratory. The pathogens must then be altered to ensure that the disease is not actually triggered. Alterations of these pathogens can be done in different ways. Scientists can weaken the pathogen by growing it over and over and selecting a strand that is less dangerous, take out the part of the pathogen that causes the immune response and use it in the vaccine, or use the toxin that the pathogen makes then inactivate it (Tetanus vaccine). Finally, the treated pathogen is combined with things such as stabilizers and preservatives to then produce the actual vaccine dose. Vaccinations are purposely designed to prevent a person from getting sick. Most vaccinations do actually prevent the disease that they inject through the vaccine; however, one still may be diagnosed with the illness if the vaccination is a “live” pathogen. For example, the flu is impossible to obtain once the vaccination is injected. Although one may receive flu-like symptoms, it is impossible to actually be …show more content…
An example of a supply problem would be the influenza vaccination this year. Many health clinics expected to receive the vaccinations in September, but they ended up not receiving them until October. Another example of a supply problem would be inaccurate storage. Vaccinations have to be transported to the facility and then stored at a certain temperature. Countries with low income struggle with this problem because of electricity shortage and poor facilities. If the vaccination is not stored properly, then the vaccination is not effective and it will not prevent the