Both immunizations and vaccines refer to a condition where the body is made indifferent against a disease. The difference lies in how you acquire this indifference. Immunization is the general term used for all types of indifference your body acquires towards a disease. You may acquire it naturally, by getting the disease at some stage. You may also acquire it through an artificial exposure to a controlled amount of the germs causing the disease. This is called a vaccination. In a sense, a vaccination is also a type of immunization. The only difference is that you do it artificially, in a safer manner.
Even though you may find the term being used indiscriminately, they actually mean different things. Vaccines may contain weakened or dead germs that are capable of producing a disease. However, the germs are either dead or weakened to such an extent that they are incapable of causing the illness. When these are introduced into our body as a vaccine, it develops antibodies against them. If you are wondering what antibodies are, they are nature’s soldiers, fighting against any perceived ‘threat’ to the body. Once your body produces these antibodies, they live on. If you ever encounter the virus or germ again, these antibodies kill them off before they can harm your body.
Now, the same thing happens in an immunization. The only difference is that the process is natural. Once you get an illness and your body overcomes it, it ‘stores away’ this information in the form of those antibodies. As in a vaccination, those antibodies fight back if you encounter the virus or germ a second time.
Are you wondering why people get vaccinated if they can gain immunity in the natural way? This is because most diseases do not give you a chance to live beyond the first attack. Think about diseases like tetanus, small pox and diphtheria. Millions of people worldwide have died of these dreaded diseases, before the vaccines were developed. Other diseases have caused irreparable damage to the body of the surviving individual. Would you like to take a chance loosing you life or becoming disabled, just to go the ‘natural way?’
Today, we have vaccines against fatal diseases like rubella, polio, tetanus and pertussis. Efforts are also on to develop the first vaccines against the dreaded swine flu. When you get a vaccine, you ensure protection against a number of diseases in a safe and secure way. It is one of the miracles of modern science
So next time you dread the poke of that needle on your arm, think about the miseries you are avoiding- it won’t hurt that bad!
Learn more about Vaccinatin and Immunization.