How vaccines work
Transcript - How vaccines work
How vaccines work.
Our immune system is our body's natural defence system. It keeps us healthy by responding to viruses and bacteria that are unfamiliar or that can make us sick.
Vaccines work with our body's defence system. They help the body develop protection against diseases without having to actually get the diseases.
How do they do this?
Vaccinations safely expose our immune systems to key parts of bacteria or viruses, called antigens. The immune system responds to the antigens by creating antibodies and memory cells for future protection.
Antibodies will attach to the harmful bacteria or viruses so the immune system can remove them from the body.
Later, if we encounter that bacteria or virus, our memory cells quickly produce more antibodies to help remove it from our body faster, so that we either don't get the disease or prevents serious illness if we do get the disease.
To find out more, visit Canada.ca/childhood-vaccines.