1 Active and passive immunisation

The principle of vaccination is very simple – train the immune system to recognise and react against the infectious agent. This procedure is in fact ‘active immunisation’, so called because the person who receives the vaccine actively makes their own antibodies and T-cell responses against antigens in the vaccine. For most infections ‘active immunisation’ is the only form of immunisation available. However there is another form of treatment called ‘passive immunisation’.