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Vaccination

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  • Vaccination

Measles is a highly contagious disease and one of the leading causes of death of children under 5. In 2013 it is estimated that almost 150 thousand children died from measles worldwide. The World Health Organisation monitors cases of measles and other diseases as well as vaccination rates. This lesson students learn to explain how vaccinations work, they discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of vaccination and answer an IB style question showing data from the WHO European region.

Lesson Description

Guiding Questions

How can we help the immune system to fight pathogens more quickly?

Are vaccines safe?

Activity 1 - Vaccination, how it works

The recent Disneyland measles outbreak has got the western world talking about vaccination like never before.

Watch this video from the CBS news.   CBS News - measles outbreak

After watching the video answer the following questions

Questions

  1. What does the video claim to be the cause of the recent increase in measles cases in the USA?
  2. What evidence is presented to support this claim?

Watch this video explanation of how a vaccine gives you immunity - from MIT -
(Although it starts slowly the terminology is appropriate for IB. Start at 1 min 14 if you are in a hurry)

After watching the video arrange the following statements into the correct order to explain vaccination.

Sort the statements into an explanation

Organise the following bullet points into an order which explain how vaccines work.
(The first and last have been done for you. There is an Explaining vaccination student worksheet)

  1. The immune system takes a while to make antibodies for unknown antigens on a new pathogen.
  • If the body is infected with the full strength pathogen, memory cells enable it to produce antibodies more rapidly.
  • The helper T-cells then activate B-lymphocytes to produce antibodies.
  • The B-lymphocytes clone themselves and form plasma cells which make antibodies and memory cells.
  • The memory cells in the immune system give us immunity to the pathogens we have already been infected by.
  • The production of antibodies first involves macrophages engulfing the pathogen
  • Vaccines contain a harmless form of a pathogen. (which is often injected into the body in a vaccination)
  • The immune system responds to the vaccine in the same ways as it responds to an unknown antigen.
  • Macrophages present the antigens to helper T-cell which activates them.
  1. Thus the vaccinated person is immune to the pathogen.

Add numbers to the diagram showing where the statements fit to explain how the human body develops immunity following vaccination

Check your answers (click the eye icon to display)

Model answer for the vaccination flow chart:

  1. The immune system takes a while to make antibodies for unknown antigens on a new pathogen.
  2. Vaccines contain a harmless form of a pathogen.
  3. The immune system responds to the vaccine in the same ways as it responds to an unknown antigen.
  4. The production of antibodies first involves macrophages engulfing the pathogen
  5. Macrophages present the antigens to helper T-cell which activates them.
  6. The helper T-cells then activate B-lymphocytes to produce antibodies.
  7. The B-lymphocytes clone themselves and form plasma cells which make antibodies and memory cells.
  8. The memory cells in the immune system give us immunity to the pathogens we have already been infected by.
  9. If the body is infected with the full strength pathogen, memory cells enable it to produce antibodies more rapidly.
  10. Thus the vaccinated person is immune to the pathogen.

Activity 2 - Vaccinations - and the eradication of smallpox

Watch the following videos and while you watch complete the following written tasks:

  1. make a list of the benefits of vaccinations
  2. outline how the introduction of smallpox vaccine has led to the eradication of smallpox in the world.

  How we conquered smallpox - Watch this great summary of how vaccinations helped to eradicate smallpox - over 100 years of human history.

  How vaccines really work - TEDmed talk by Adam Finn. He explains the argument for vaccination includes the idea that by being vaccinated you protect others from diseases too.

Check that your written work includes the following:

The benefits should include

  • total elimination of diseases,
  • prevention of pandemics and epidemics,
  • decreased health-care costs and
  • prevention of harmful side-effects of diseases.

The explanation should include

  • steps in the development of the vaccine,
  • the use of the vaccine and
  • the effects of the vaccination programme of smallpox outbreaks.

Activity 3 - Measles vaccination - data analysis questions

Look at the data about measles vaccination and answer the questions on IB style questions on vaccination rates. Does the data support the argument for vaccinations as a way to eradicate diseases from parts of the world?

Teachers notes

This area of the course could be covered quickly but there is such a lot of misinformation about vaccination on the web that the topic merits some biological study.

Activity 1 is an explanation of how vaccination works. It begins with a interesting story about a measles outbreak at Disneyland in the USA. The video from MIT is a slightly simple explanation which leads to an activity using more robust IB language to sort out statements explaining how vaccination works.

Activity 2 is designed to show some of the conflicting arguments about the safety of vaccinations. Students make their own list and then compare it to the list given in the IB guide.

Activity 3 is a data analysis question based on some real data from the WHO about measles in Europe.

Model answers can be found here:

It is also important to include mention of the following - I will develop an activity for these soon.

A good TV debate to illustrate some of the debate about the good and bad of vaccines,
  Child vaccinations - the doctors' debate. "The Drs" discuss fears about vaccines with the audience and anti-vaccine campaigners on a TV show.