How do immunizations work to produce immunological memory?

1 Answer

Immunization is a process designed to help our bodies fight off a particular infection caused by a pathogen in a more effective way, it strengthens the bodies immune response.

Vaccination is the most widely used form of immunization.
considering an example:

A child is vaccinated by a bacteria which is (antigen) Bacteria 1.

note: antigen refers to any foreign element (in this case Bacteria 1) which enters the body through the outside environment

  1. Upon vaccinating him: Bacteria 1 enters his body and starts infecting, in response his bodies' immune system starts producing antibodies which help fight off this bacterial invasion.

  2. A very important point to note here is that antibodies are always specific to a particular antigen type.

So here in this case, antibodies specific to bacteria 1 are produced, let us name them AB-1 (antibody 1)

  1. AB-1 fights off all the Bacteria 1 which are infecting his body and now all that remains in the child's body are the antibodies AB - 1

These antibodies have a memory factor and they can now remember the pathogen they just fought against (Bacteria 1), and they circulate the body for years, so in future if the child is infected by Bacteria 1, his body will be very quick in recognizing this bacteria type and will fight against them very efficiently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLCC2DB523BA8BCB53&v=z3M0vU3Dv8E