Active Immunity vs Passive Immunity

 

An Introduction To The Concept Of Passive Immunity

Passive Immunity is the ability of the body to defend itself against infectious diseases. Your immune system can fight infection from a disease if you are immune to it. Immunity can be innate or acquired. Immunity, often known as innate immunity, is immunity that an organism is born with. Immunity of this type is inherited from one's parents. An organism's genetic immunity protects them for the rest of their lives. Innate immunity is made up of the following components:

1. External defences:

   External defences, often known as the first line of defence, work to protect an organism against pathogen exposure. Skin, tears, and stomach acid are examples of external defences.

2. Internal defences:

   Once a pathogen has entered the body, internal defences act as a second line of defence. Inflammation and fevers are examples of internal defences.

3. The third layer of protection is adaptive immunity, also known as acquired immunity. An organism's adaptive immunity defends it from a specific infection. Adaptive immunity is divided into two categories: active immunity and passive immunity.

What are the types of immunity?

• Understanding Active Immunity

Active immunity is immunity to a pathogen that develops after exposure to the infection. When B cells come into contact with a pathogen, they produce memory cells as well as antibodies. Memory cells are a sort of B cell that is formed after a primary infection and has the ability to recognise the pathogen. Memory cells can live for decades, waiting for the infection to re-invade the host. When the body is exposed to the pathogen a second time, the immune response is stronger, and the illness agent is dealt with more swiftly.

Immunity does not develop immediately after exposure to a pathogen. Active immunity can take days or weeks to develop following the first encounter. However, once it has done so, the protection can last a lifetime. Active immunity can develop naturally or as a result of immunisation.

• Understanding Passive Immunity

Passive immunity refers to disease protection provided by antibodies produced outside of the body. Passive immunity can be either natural or induced by the mother. Immunity passed down from mother to kid is known as maternal passive immunity or natural passive immunity. Antibodies are delivered through the placenta before the child is born to protect the infant against sickness. Antibodies present in breast milk continue to provide passive immunity to an infant after delivery.

Injected antibodies generated within a different person or animal provide artificial passive immunity. Antiserum is the term for these antibody-containing preparations. Antiserums that produce passive immunity include the rabies vaccination and snake antivenom.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Active Immunity

1. Active immunity has the advantage of lasting longer than passive immunity. Active immunity produces a type of cell with a long memory, which is triggered when the cell recognises a harmful infection. The cells expand, alerting other immune system cells that something familiar has returned, and they band together to combat something they know how to beat. ‌

2. Although you usually only ingest non-life-threatening foreign substances, it's possible that you'll come across anything harmful. There is more room for illness and disease since active immunity is random.

3. Active immunity also doesn't protect you from mutations of diseases against which your body already has antibodies. When illnesses mutate, they take on new forms that your immune system isn't equipped to combat.

The Benefits and Drawbacks of Passive Immunity

1. Passive immunity is beneficial to your health since it allows you to be ready to tackle specific, hazardous illnesses and diseases right away. It defends your body against threats it might not be able to handle on its own.

2. Passive immunity also provides an immediate boost to your immune system. The biggest disadvantage of passive immunity is that antibodies don't last very long in the body. Because your body doesn't react to certain diseases on a regular basis, the antibodies that combat them will die off without replenishment.

In A Nutshell

Exposure to a pathogen is required to develop active immunity. Antibodies are produced in the body as a result of this. The antigens on the viruses' surfaces serve as markers that bind to the antibodies.

Antibodies are injected into the body from an external source (typically through vaccines) to provide passive immunity. It allows for a rapid response to an illness. Both active and passive immunity play a role in a well-equipped and powerful immune system.

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ARN: ED/08/22/28638