Why do we develop lifelong immunity to some diseases, but not others?

[admin]

Why do some diseases infect us again and again?

Why do we develop lifelong immunity to some diseases, but not others? : Read more

 

[JoeMerica]

I have read elsewhere that our bodies' immune system seems to remember viruses better if they were a serious threat - if they see it replicating rapidly or doing damage. With the mRNA approach, arent we teaching our immune system that this is NOT much of a threat? We create a few of them from our own cells but its pretty mild. Wouldnt it follow that the immunity would not last long?

 

[PaulyRoc]

The article "why do some diseases infect us again and again" seems well intended, but uses a terrible example of annual flu shots as if the annual flu shot was made up of the same flu virus - not the case. Tetanus is a bacterial infection and antibodies are created for viral infection, mostly. Then uses chicken pox as another example, which is a form of herpes. Herpes generally goes "dormant" and does not leave the body EVER, but as we age and our immune system weakens we are prone to viral re-emergence as shingles, a lessened version of chickenpox. The antibodies of any virus your body develops is lifelong. Tcels are not the same, but related. Some viruses are knocked out prior to the immune system creating antibodies as the Tcels handled the virus. Everyone is different in that regard. You can catch things more than once before your body actually develops antibodies, some folks just don't have strong immune systems. This is stuff that I learned in primary school. There is nothing out there that says it has changed. The info that COVID antibodies last 4 mon or 9 mon are misstatements as there have not been studies longer than that and can only represent the 4 or 5 or 6 month time frames. I don't know much about mRNA, but I understand that it works like Tcels and (hopefully) teaches the immune system to develop antibodies so it essentially is using how the immune system works to artificially generate something that ordinarily would happen naturally. Your logic, JoeMerica, stands to reason. Only time will tell. If the vaccines are ever FDA approved, that would be a good indicator that the vaccine creates lifelong antibodies as opposed to being artificial Tcels with limited duration. IMO

 

[Bril2424]

43rd

Why do some diseases infect us again and again?

Why do we develop lifelong immunity to some diseases, but not others? : Read more

Depending on how efficient they are, viruses mutate so they can continue to infect their host species. Some mutate rapidly while some don't.