Immunity

[renegaed]

hi
i'm a yr 12 doing Biology and i have a question on immunity. this may seem dumb but i was wondering what the difference was between immunisation and vaccination. they both seem to come hand in hand but i can't seem to distinguish between them?
thnx

[Nite]

i think the difference is immunisation can refer to both naturally formed enhanced immunity following pathogen invasion and inoculation with a vaccine to gain immunity.

while vaccination = inoculation with vaccine in order to gain immunity against particular diseases.

where's dr stein? i believe she will have a better explanation for this..

[pdavis68]

Nite is correct. Technically immunization is to be made immune and this can happen by natural methods. If you get chicken pox, you are then immune to them in the future. So you are immunized against chicken pox.

The confusion is probably caused by the fact that people sometimes call vaccinations, immunizations.

It comes down to this, probably: A vaccination is an immunization but an immunization is not necessarily a vaccination.

Pete