Immunization

For financial immunization, see Immunization (finance).

Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual is exposed to an agent that is designed to fortify his or her immune system against that agent. The material is known as an immunogen. Immunization is different from inoculationor vaccinationin that inoculation and vaccination use a viable infecting agent (i.e., it can make the individual sick) while immunization does not use a viable agent.

When the human immune system is exposed to a disease once, it can develop the ability to quickly respond to a subsequent infection. Therefore, by exposing an individual to an immunogen in a controlled way, their body will then be able to protect itself from infection later on in life.

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It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immunization Wikipedia article Immunization.