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Immunization vs vaccination |
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In today's medically advanced age, medical jargon and technical information is not exclusively for those in the field. We have access to medical journals, the internet and even media reports that bring to the layperson recent findings and new developments in this field that was once shrouded with mystery. Everyday we find ourselves more conversant with medical terminology. However, as common as medical lingo may have become in our daily usage, how much understanding is there about the jargon that we use is unclear. We have become so used to interspersing our discussions with medical language that sometimes we use them without knowing their meaning. In fact sometimes there exists a lot of confusion about general medical jargon that we use. For example people commonly talk about taking antibiotics to cure ailments. However, several of these people may not be clear that antibiotics can cure only bacterial infections and not viral, so common is the usage of the word antibiotics! Another common confusion is Immunization vs. Vaccination. Both terms are so commonly used everyday that we do not stop to think what they even mean. Everyday there is talk of some new parent getting her child this vaccination and that
immunization. Medical news is full of recent breakthroughs in some new vaccination that will help in immunization of some deadly disease. But at the end of the day, is there an immunization vs. vaccination. Is there a difference such that there is an immunization vs. vaccination? Simply put immunization is the process in which the human immune system is prepared against attack by infectious microorganisms. There are 2 types of immunization. In active immunization, a foreign organism is introduced into the body such that the immune system activates itself against it. It can occur naturally when the body encounters a microbe that leads to an infection. It can also occur when the microbe or parts of it are pre-treated (to avoid infecting the person) or killed and then inserted into the body to develop antibodies. Passive immunisation pre-made antibodies are inserted into the body such that the body doesn't have to create them for itself. One way of passive immunization is transfer of antibodies from mother to the foetus. Vaccination actually is a type of immunization. It is artificial active immunization. The word is derived from the Latin word for cow, 'vaca' because the first vaccination was developed using the cowpox virus and then being inserted into humans to develop immunity to smallpox. Before vaccinations were developed, immunization was already happening every time someone recovered from an illness and thus developed natural immunity to that disease. Thus there is an immunization vs. vaccination. All immunizations are not vaccinations. But all vaccinations are immunizations. Childhood Vaccination
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