Ask your parents about Mantoux Test (scratch on the skin), polio vaccine or smallpox vaccines when they were young (when the same needle was reused for hundreds of children). Although our practice has improved, the theory behind vaccination is still the same as the one initially used by Edward Jenner (1796) who first used a vaccine against “smallpox” made using a related virus “cowpox”. O UTLINE THE WAY IN WHICH VACCINATIONS PREVENT INFECTION

Vaccination has become so successful that it has all but eradicated the pathogen that caused the above mentioned diseased. TB has however increased due to a combination of the evolution of drug resistant strains and the influx of travellers carrying TB.

W HAT IS V ACCINATION Vaccination is the process where the body is infected manually with a weakened or dead pathogen to induce antibody production so the antigen will be destroyed by the bodies natural immune response. They trigger a response in the immune system without causing disease. Further exposure to the pathogen will not cause disease due to the production of memory B-cells and memory T-cells specific to that pathogen. Immunity can be for a long time or a short time depending on the longevity of the memory cells.

R ESPONSE If the body encounters the antigen again after vaccination the memory cells of the immune system will enable the body to rapidly respond to the infection.

O UTLINE THE REASONS FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE IMMUNE RESPONSE IN ORGAN TRANSPLANT PATIENTS The human body is able to identify cells of the body as ‘self’ or ‘non self’ based on marker proteins that are found on every cell. When tissue is transplanted between individuals the new organ will be identified and rejected by the immune system as being ‘non self’. Immunosuppression is used to reduce the risk of the new organ being rejected.

M ETHODS OF I MMUNOSUPPRESSION MethodDescriptionSide Effects RadiationX – rays of lymph tissue Destroys other lymph functions especially T cell responses to infection Cytotoxic Drugs Azathioprine and methotrexate Interfere with DNA synthesis & damages rapidly dividing cells, disrupts T cell responses to infection Fungus derived peptide Cyclosporine A Neither kills B or T cells, but may increase risk of cancer