I understand a vaccine, a small dose of ‘x’ is given so your body can realise it’s foreign and learn how to fight it when the real thing comes.
But surely with a penicillin dose not being a vaccine,the body now has both it AND the foreign body to deal with? How does it’kill’ the intruder and not detrimental to the immune system?
Edit; Added words for clarification.
Edit 2; Thanks all, I have an understanding now!
In: 6
Vaccines are prevention, antibiotics are medication to help with an active infection (usually – they can be given preemptively if the dr’s concerned you might be about to develop a bacterial infection).
A vaccine primes your immune system to fight, making sure it has the antibodies to recognize and attack a particular invader the next time it sees one.
An antibiotic makes the battlefield actively hostile for the enemy when you’re already under attack.
It’s the difference between putting out an APB or putting up sandbags and barbed wire, vs providing close air support (or using mustard gas) during an active engagement.
The penicillin is a chemical weapon that actually gets in there and kills the pathogenic bacteria. More specifically, it inhibits a reaction that bacteria use to build their cell walls, so that bacteria exposed to it eventually break open and die. It has nothing to do with the immune system itself – the immune system doesn’t recognize penicillin or try to fight it, because the immune system is designed to recognize and attack foreign organisms, and penicillin isn’t one.
Bonus: antibiotics (including penicillin) pretty much only work against bacteria (and sometimes fungi). It’s why doctors don’t want to prescribe antibiotics for a cold or the flu (because those are viral). Viruses are best fought by priming the immune system (with a vaccine) to recognize and eliminate them itself, though we have developed numerous antiviral medications that can help, in some cases, like Tamiflu.
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