Why does vaccination provide long-lasting protection against a disease?

Question

,.....while gamma globulin (IgG) provides only short-term protection?

Peace and many thanks.

Answer 1

Honestly, this isn't quite my specialty, but I'll give it a shot.  My advance apologies if I'm completely wrong or anything.  >.>

A vaccination introduces a strain of a disease or condition into one's body, and your body's cells react to it.  Vaccinations are rarely, if at all, as harmful as the diseases they represent, because they've been altered.

By introducing them into a system, the variety of the disease is "remembered" by your body, and if you ever contract that disease or condition, your body can often fight it off before it becomes a problem.

Gamma globulin, on the other hand, temporarily boosts the immune system by introducing protein-type factors into your body that are essential in the immune system.

Body levels of these can change and deplete radically and consistently, therefore a sudden rise from those added artificially to (not made by) the body don't last long; the body quickly returns to a lower, more "normal" count for that particular system.

Therefore, the general idea I'm getting from it is this:  Vaccinations don't add something to your body that helps the body; it adds something to the body that affects how the body "knows" how to work -- whereas gamma globulin is adding something to the body that can only be temporarily sustained and teaches the body nothing for the future.

Edit:  I've thought of another way to try and explain my thoughts on this:

Say you have twin sons, both beginning to learn basic addition.

You give each boy a pad of paper and a pencil.

On boy A's pad of paper is "3 + 4 = 7".

On boy B's pad of paper is "3 + 4 = ?".

Boy A is given the answer to that particular situation; similar to how gamma globulin offers a temporary solution.  However, tomorrow, boy A may be presented with "2 + 5 = ?" and will not know; because he was taught only the answer -- not how to get to the answer.

Boy B, on the other hand, was given the problem and forced to find a solution.  By doing this, he is able to teach himself to solve the problem not just that one time, but that time AND the problems he comes across in the future, because he can remember it.

Gamma globulin gives an answer to the current problem, but vaccination teaches your body how to solve it.

Answer 2

Vaccinations usually contain dead or attenuated live viruses or bacteria. They have protein markers (antigens) on their membranes that are unique to that type of pathogen. The immune system has a series of cells that are designed to recognize, destroy, and *remember* pathogens that you encounter throughout your life. This "immunologic memory" is produced when B-lymphocytes recognize antigens and start a whole (slow-ish) enzymatic/signaling/action cascade, one of which includes the production of Memory Cells. Immunoglobulins, or antibodies, are important in the immune response in terms of detecting the pathogen and signaling other immune cells, but they are relatively short-lived. Memory cells, however, can live for many years. Upon second infection with the same pathogen, memory cells are capable of launching a very rapid response to the pathogen (by signaling other immune cells and releasing antibodies), because it "recognizes" that antigen and can skip the whole slow-ish enzymatic/signaling/action cascade mentioned above. Therefore, we become "immune" to that pathogen because our memory cells help to eradicate it before it becomes problematic.

Answer 3

Usually vaccinations are live bacteria injected into the body that allows the immune system to develop tolerance against the infectious disease.