Disease is a disordered or incorrectly functioning organ, part, structure, or system of the body resulting from the effect of genetic or developmental errors, infection, poisons, nutritional deficiency or imbalance, toxicity, or unfavorable environmental factors; illness; sickness; ailment (“The Definition of Disease”). Disease has been around for as long as humans can go back, and because of the many viruses and bacteria present in almost all things (animals, plants, and people) it is quite impossible to completely avoid. Although viruses and bacteria can not completely be avoided, they can, however, be somewhat slowed down or prevented in most human beings -- this is where vaccinations come into action. Vaccinations have saved many children,
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The official definition of the immune system according to dictionary.com is a diffuse, complex network of interacting cells, cell products, and cell-forming tissues that protects the body from pathogens and other foreign substances, destroys infected and malignant cells, and removes cellular debris: the system includes the thymus, spleen, lymph nodes and lymph tissue, stem cells, white blood cells, antibodies, and lymphokines (The Definition of Immune System). When viruses or bacteria gets into the body, the first thing that happens to them in the immune system is they hit a wall of macrophages (white blood cells), which are referred to as “big eaters” -- this is because these macrophages literally engulf and eat as many of these unusual viruses as they can (Alan Cantwell Jr., M.D.). But how do the macrophages know which cells are good, and which cells carry viruses within them? According to Understanding Vaccinations -What They Are and How They Work, each cell and microbe in the body is covered in molecules, and each individual person’s molecules exhibits a distinctive pattern, therefore if a peculiar molecule comes into the body and it’s pattern does not match up, the macrophages immediately remove it. Because the immune system works in such a way, scientists had to come up with a way that vaccinations would somehow work together alongside the immune system, in hopes of trying to put a stop to the deadly diseases occurring in the
The official definition of the immune system according to dictionary.com is a diffuse, complex network of interacting cells, cell products, and cell-forming tissues that protects the body from pathogens and other foreign substances, destroys infected and malignant cells, and removes cellular debris: the system includes the thymus, spleen, lymph nodes and lymph tissue, stem cells, white blood cells, antibodies, and lymphokines (The Definition of Immune System). When viruses or bacteria gets into the body, the first thing that happens to them in the immune system is they hit a wall of macrophages (white blood cells), which are referred to as “big eaters” -- this is because these macrophages literally engulf and eat as many of these unusual viruses as they can (Alan Cantwell Jr., M.D.). But how do the macrophages know which cells are good, and which cells carry viruses within them? According to Understanding Vaccinations -What They Are and How They Work, each cell and microbe in the body is covered in molecules, and each individual person’s molecules exhibits a distinctive pattern, therefore if a peculiar molecule comes into the body and it’s pattern does not match up, the macrophages immediately remove it. Because the immune system works in such a way, scientists had to come up with a way that vaccinations would somehow work together alongside the immune system, in hopes of trying to put a stop to the deadly diseases occurring in the