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Vaccine

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A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains a small amount of an agent that resembles a microorganism. The agent stimulates the body's immune system to recognize the agent as foreign, destroy it, and "remember" it, so that the immune system can more easily recognize and destroy any of these microorganisms that it later encounters.

Vaccines can be prophylactic (e.g. to prevent or ameliorate the effects of a future infection by any natural or "wild" pathogen), or therapeutic (e.g. vaccines against cancer are also being investigated; see cancer vaccine).

The term vaccine derives from Edward Jenner's 1796 use of the term cow pox (Latin variolæ vaccinæ, adapted from the Latin vaccīn-us, from vacca cow), which, when administered to humans, provided them protection against smallpox.

For more information about Vaccine, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with vaccine

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Biological catch-22 prevents induction of antibodies that block HIV

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 2

Scientists seeking to understand how to make an AIDS vaccine have found the cause of a major roadblock. It turns out that the immune system can indeed produce cells with the potential to manufacture powerful HIV-blocking ...


Research reveals further progress toward AIDS vaccine

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(PHILADELPHIA) Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University are one step closer to developing a vaccine against the AIDS disease.


Major breakthrough may pave the way for therapeutic vaccines

Medicine & Health / Research

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

It should be possible to use therapeutic vaccines to create both cheap and effective drugs for diseases like cancer and allergies. One problem in developing such vaccines has previously been the lack of adjuvants, substances ...


Hindering HIV-1-fighting immune cells

Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Immune proteins called HLA molecules help to activate killer T cell responses against pathogens. But according to a study that will be published online on December 14th in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, one partic ...


Kids' Swine flu shots recalled; not strong enough

Medicine & Health / Medications

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for children have been recalled because tests indicate the vaccine doses lost some strength, government health officials said Tuesday.


Swine flu vaccine now plentiful in half the states

Medicine & Health / Medications

created Dec 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- After weeks of shortages, swine flu vaccine is plentiful enough that nearly half the states now say everyone can get it, not just people in high-risk groups.


WHO to send swine flu vaccine to poor countries

Medicine & Health / Medications

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(AP) -- The World Health Organization plans to start shipping swine flu vaccine to Azerbaijan, Afghanistan and Mongolia in the next few weeks, flu chief Keiji Fukuda said Thursday.


New Vaccines May Help Thwart E. coli O157:H7

New Vaccines May Help Thwart E. coli O157:H7

Biology / Other

created 19 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Immunizing calves with either of two forms of a vaccine newly developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists might reduce the spread of sometimes deadly Escherichia coli O157:H7 ...