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| 'Walk the Talk' health for all Initiative. Credit : WHO |
Herd immunity happens when a high percentage of the population is immune to a disease (through vaccination), making the spread of this disease from contact unlikely. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as enfants and the immuno-compromised) are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community.
As we know, vaccines prevent many dangerous and deadly diseases. In India, smallpox and polio have both been stamped out because of vaccination. However, there are certain groups of people who cannot get vaccinated and are vulnerable to disease: babies, pregnant women, and immuno-compromised people, such as those cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy or organ transplants. For example, the earliest an infant can receive their first whooping cough vaccine is at two months, and the earliest a child can receive their first measles vaccine is at one year, making them vulnerable to these diseases.
Community Immunity protects the most vulnerable members of our population. If enough people are vaccinated against deadly diseases, those who are susceptible and cannot get vaccinated are protected because the virus will not be able to infect those vulnerable people of the community.
Let's decode the above discussion scientifically, there are also memory B cells, a type of white blood cell, which create antibodies based on past fights with pathogens. T cells, another type of white blood cell, also play vital roles — adapting the full-fledged immune response, instructing the body to create more antibodies and even actively fighting the virus by killing infected cells.
Epidemiologists are uncertain which components of the immune response are most important to fight off the coronavirus. Seeing antibody levels drop off is a concerning sign, but the data is still provisional and conflicting. Even if antibodies decrease, it does not necessarily mean people are just as vulnerable if they encounter coronavirus again.
Such findings, if proved, could complicate efforts to make a long-lasting vaccine and to achieve herd immunity.
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