Vaccination active acquired immunity

Active acquired immunity (Chapter 8) relatesto exposure of the immune system to antigenic materials. Such exposure might be related to a naturally occurring or vaccine-associated infection, or it might be associated with the direct introduction of non-... 

Naturally acquired immunity offers the most reliable protection for people living permanently in endemic areas (below). Repeated attacks of malaria confer partial immunity and the disease often becomes no more than an occasional inconvenience. Vaccines to confer active immunity are under development. 

Little or no federal funding is provided to state and local health departments to support the surveillance of general communicable diseases. The ability of the states to support infectious disease surveillance has declined in recent years. A 1993 survey indicated that 12 states had no professional position dedicated to surveillance of foodbome and waterborne diseases (Osterholm et al., 1996). Although most states do have some infectious disease surveillance capacity, it is most often supported by categorical (i.e., disease-specific) funds, for example, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, vaccine-preventable diseases, sexually transmitted diseases. These funds generally cannot be used to support noncategorical communicable disease activities. 

Pre-exposure prophylaxis with IGIM is indicated for individuals at high risk of acquiring the HAV who cannot receive the hepatitis A vaccine (e.g., because of allergy to the components alum or 2-phenoxyethanol). Additionally, travelers who plan to depart for endemic areas within 2 weeks and have not yet received the hepatitis A vaccine should receive IGIM because active vaccine immunity takes several weeks to develop. 

The active immunity may be acquired following clinical infection (chicken pox, rubella, measles), following subclinical infection (polio and diphtheria) and following immunization with an antigen which may be killed vaccine, live attenuated vaccine or a toxoid. 

As stated above, the principal objective for the use of an adjuvant in a vaccine is to potentiate immune response to an Ag of minimal immunogenicity. How this potentiation is achieved varies from adjuvant to adjuvant and in many cases, the precise mechanism of ac tion is unknov n. However, as a rule, immune potentiation is accomplished by the ability of the adjuvant to induce a variety of non-specific activities within the innate arm of the immune system. Once activated, the innate branch of immunity, particularly the complement system, orchestrates the various humoral and cell-mediated responses that operate within and between the innate and acquired arms. The result is a generalized activation and potentiation of the immune system in response to the adjuvant with the hope that this generalized immune priming will allow for a more effective processing and recognition of the Ag contained within the vaccine. 

Artificially acquired active immunity Occurs as a response >-sen.sidzation by a vaccine or toxoid. 

Immunologicals are all medicines which are either allergens defined cis products used to identify or provoke a specific modification to acquire an immunological response to an antiallergic agent, or vaccines, toxins or sera defined as all agents used to provoke an active or passive immunity to diagnose the state of immunity. 

Passive immunity is transient—lasting no more than several weeks to a few months. The individual does not mount his or her own immune response to antigens. Acquired passive immunity is important when time does not permit active vaccination alone, when the exposed individual is at high risk for complications of the disease, or when the person suffers from an immune system deficiency that renders that person unable to produce an effective immune response. 

Artificially acquired active immunity When an individual is exposed to a vaccine containing live, weakened, or dead organisms or their toxins, the host s own immune system responds specifically to defend the body, e.g., by making specific antibodies. 

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