I copied the following from http://academy.asm.org/images/stories/documents/Flu_web.pdf
"Whenever you are infected by a pathogen, your immune system generates compounds called antibodies that bind to the infectious agent and target it for destruction. After the infection is cured, a few of the white blood cells that make those specific antibodies continue to circulate in your blood. Called “memory cells”, these cells are quickly activated if the same infectious agent attacks you again, preventing the infectious agent from establishing itself and preventing
you from getting sick. That is why vaccination works: a vaccine presents the immune system with a harmless form of an infectious agent so that if you are infected by the real thing, your immune system will be primed to destroy it quickly"
However, "...the last year’s flu victims will not have immunity if they encounter a different subtype or strain this year."
"Whenever you are infected by a pathogen, your immune system generates compounds called antibodies that bind to the infectious agent and target it for destruction. After the infection is cured, a few of the white blood cells that make those specific antibodies continue to circulate in your blood. Called “memory cells”, these cells are quickly activated if the same infectious agent attacks you again, preventing the infectious agent from establishing itself and preventing
you from getting sick. That is why vaccination works: a vaccine presents the immune system with a harmless form of an infectious agent so that if you are infected by the real thing, your immune system will be primed to destroy it quickly"
However, "...the last year’s flu victims will not have immunity if they encounter a different subtype or strain this year."
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