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
Penicillin works on a specific class of cells called Gram-positive cells. These are cells with a specific kind of cell wall. Penicillin works to inhibit the formation of this wall, making the cells die.
It turns out that a lot of common bacteria are Gram-positive. Human cells, on the other hand, are not. This makes penicillin effective at killing an infection but not your own cells.
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