Define artificial active immunity with two examples
Q82 marksShort Notes
Answer
Artificial active immunity is the resistance to infection acquired when an individual’s own immune system is deliberately stimulated by immunization with a vaccine to produce specific antibodies and/or sensitized lymphocytes — “active” because the individual’s own immune system generates the response, and “artificial” because the stimulus is a deliberately administered vaccine rather than natural infection.
Like all active immunity, it is slow in onset (requires time for clonal expansion) but long-lasting, generating immunological memory that provides durable, often reinforced-by-booster protection.
Examples:
BCG vaccination — a live attenuated vaccine (derived from Mycobacterium bovis) that stimulates cell-mediated immunity, providing protection particularly against severe childhood forms of tuberculosis (miliary TB, TB meningitis).
DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) vaccination — a combination vaccine containing diphtheria and tetanus toxoids plus pertussis antigen (whole-cell or acellular), stimulating active antibody production against all three diseases as part of the routine childhood immunization schedule.
(Other valid examples include the oral polio vaccine, MMR vaccine, and hepatitis B vaccine.)
