HLSC 1F90 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Smallpox Vaccine, Edward Jenner
Document Summary
Lets focus on the major concepts and essence of how we naturally defend against infection. Many different players interacting to achieve (football team) Today we will take a tour of the immune system . Physiological mechanisms that humans and other animals use to defend their bodies from invasion by other organisms (without harming themselves) Historically, observations of survivors of epidemic disease that were apparently untouched (immune) when faced with the same infectious disease again at a later time (measles outbreak on an island) Advantage of reproducing and evolving much more rapidly than their human hosts. Pit enormous populations of its species against an individual human. In response, te human body invests heavily in cells dedicated to defence, which collectible form the immune system. In the absence of a working immune system, even minor infections can take hold and prove fatal. Without intensive treatment, children born without a functional immune system die in early childhood from the effects of common infections.