Immunity is the ability to resist illness when exposed to a disease. There are several ways to develop immunity.
Active immunity is the result of being exposed to a disease, or vaccine for a disease. The exposure prompts your immune system to produce antibodies that help your body resist infection.
If you re-encounter the disease your immune system’s ‘memory cells’ will swiftly reproduce those antibodies which should protect you from that disease.
Passive immunity occurs when a person receives antibodies belonging to another person (see plasma), or naturally when an infant absorbs their mother’s antibodies from the placenta or via breast milk. This type of immunity does not last for a long time, because the person’s own immune system was never activated and so their body did not produce its own protective antibodies.
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- Immunity