Safety Tidbit 7.01 - value of Vaccination

 

Safety Tidbit 7.01 – Value of Vaccination

Reference: “Types of Immunity to a disease.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 24 Sept. 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/immunity-types.htm.

This Safety Tidbit was written by my student, Mr. Samuel Cunkelman – a senior in the Safety Sciences Program at the Indiana University of PA graduating Summer 2022.

There have been several pandemics throughout the ages, killing an abundance of people. We, the people of safety, are tasked with protecting our workers from such diseases.  There are several ways to help mitigate the hazards associated with diseases that cause pandemics by going down the hierarchy of controls. Here are a few of those ways. 1. Elimination - by quarantining the sick from the healthy. 2. Substitution - by moving work to an online platform when possible. 3. Engineering controls - having each workspace separate from each other, kind of like a bubble. 4. Administrative controls include routine hand washing, decontamination of workplaces, and implementing social distancing. 5. Personal protective equipment utilizing containment suits, goggles, and respirators. However, the best-known method to protect your workers from diseases that cause pandemics is through immunization.

Having immunity to a disease means the person has antibodies for that disease. Antibodies are a type of protein produced by the body that eliminates toxins or organisms that carry diseases. Antibodies are disease-specific, meaning there is only one type of antibody for a particular kind of disease. There are two types of immunity: active immunity and passive immunity. Active immunity is when exposed to disease; the immune system makes antibodies specialized in eliminating that disease. Someone can manifest active immunity in two ways; natural immunity and vaccine-induced immunity. Natural immunity is when a person is exposed to a disease organism via infection from the actual disease. Vaccine-induced immunity comes from introducing patients with a dead or weakened version of the disease organism. However, sometimes a person’s body will not produce antibodies; they never gain immunity. Therefore, it is imperative to test people for immunity and not just assume that they must be immune since they have been infected with the disease or given a vaccination. Testing for immunity involves obtaining a blood sample to check for antibodies.

Alternatively, passive immunity occurs after administering antibodies directly into the person, not antibodies produced through the person’s immune system. An example is when a newborn baby receives passive immunity from the mother’s placenta. Another example we saw during the COVID pandemic is immunity from blood products that contain antibodies that will provide immediate protection from that disease. A significant advantage to passive immunity is it is immediate, whereas active immunity typically takes weeks for the immune system to produce antibodies. Unfortunately, passive immunity only lasts weeks whereas, active immunity can last a long time.

Hope this was helpful and thank you for reading my Safety Tidbits! Comments and questions are always welcome. ~ Bryan

 

P.S. If you have a new safety or health question, please let me know.