• Question: Can somebody be immune to an illness/virus that others are not and get sick from?

    Asked by The_Legitimate_Callux to Angela, Claire, Ian, Robert, Sarah on 17 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Angela Stokes

      Angela Stokes answered on 17 Nov 2014:

      Hi there
      Yes – this is the principle of immunisation. So for example as a child you get vaccinated against polio. Your body makes antibodies to the vaccine which is made from dead polio virus and so if you are in contact with the virus again your lymphocytes will have seen this virus before and will fight the infection almost before you know anything about it.

      You can also inherit immunisation in the womb from your mother – again you inherit lymphocytes. As you get older, you might be in contact with a disease but only get it very mildly – again you make antibodies, so if you are exposed again you won’t get it.

      So this is why you can be in contact with diseases such as chickenpox as a youngster an not get it whilst others around you do get it!

    • Photo: Sarah Harris

      Sarah Harris answered on 20 Nov 2014:

      Yes! There are a variety of reasons for you to be immune when others aren’t. These include:

      1. Natural immunity- through your mother (which Angela explained splendidly) or through genetic variations that prevent you being susceptible to certain diseases (for example people with sickle cell anaemia are less likely to get malaria than people with normal red blood cells)

      2. Vaccinations. If you’re vaccinated against an illness you won’t catch it, whereas people who aren’t vaccinated will. This is why it’s important to get your jabs done as a child, as it has greatly reduced the number of people getting illnesses like the mumps.

      3. Adaptive immunity. If you’ve already had the illness, your body will have memory T-cells (a type of white blood cell) with antibodies against it, so even if you catch the illness they’ll be able to fight it off. People who haven’t had the virus have to first develop the antibodies and will therefore get sick.

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