vaccine

Everyday

A vaccine is a medicine, usually given as an injection, that teaches your body to fight a particular disease, so you do not get very ill from it. tree →

In the lessons

In science and health lessons, a vaccine contains a harmless weak, dead or partial form of a germ (or instructions to copy part of it); your immune system learns to recognise it and makes antibodies, so it is ready if the real germ comes. Vaccines have nearly wiped out diseases like polio and ended smallpox. Edward Jenner made the first vaccine, against smallpox, from cowpox. Children get vaccines (jabs, shots) against measles, mumps, whooping cough and others. Phrases: «get a vaccine», «flu vaccine», «have a jab» (UK), «get a shot» (USA).

Examples

• I had a vaccine at the doctor's, and it only hurt for a second. tree →
• The flu vaccine is given every year. tree →
• A vaccine trains your body to fight a disease. tree →
• Smallpox disappeared thanks to a vaccine. tree →
• Edward Jenner made the first vaccine over two hundred years ago. tree →
• Scientists test vaccines carefully before people use them. tree →
• Some vaccines are given as a nasal spray. tree →
• Vaccines protect other people too, like babies who are too young to have them. tree →

Note

Plural vaccines. Related: vaccinate (verb), vaccination (noun). Informal: «jab» (UK, Australia), «shot» (USA). A vaccine prevents a disease; it is not a cure for one you already have. Myth: vaccines do not cause autism; this has been checked in very large studies.