August 2025 – National Immunization Awareness Month
From Centers for Disease Control website
National Immunization Awareness Month (NIAM) is an annual observance held in August to highlight the importance of vaccination for people of all ages.
Vaccines work by imitating an infection—the presence of a disease-causing organism in the body—to engage the body’s natural defenses. The active ingredient in all vaccines is an antigen, the name for any substance that causes the immune system to begin producing antibodies. In a vaccine, the antigen could be either
- Weakened or killed bacteria or viruses
- Bits of their exterior surface or genetic material, or
- Bacterial toxin treated to make it non-toxic.
History shows that vaccines are the safest, most effective way to protect yourself and your family from many preventable diseases.
To be immune is to be partially or fully resistant to a specific infectious disease or disease-causing organism. A person who is immune can resist the bacteria or viruses that cause a disease, but the protection is never perfect.
Immunization is the process of being made resistant to an infectious disease, usually by means of a vaccine.
Immunity is protection against a disease, and it can be passive or active, natural or vaccine induced.
Active immunity comes from being exposed to a disease-causing organism.
- Natural immunity results from being infected by a disease-causing organism, whether the infection is symptomatic or not.
- Vaccine-induced immunity results from being exposed to killed or weakened bacteria or viruses—or even just important pieces of them—through vaccination.
Either way, active immunity takes longer to develop but lasts longer than passive immunity.
Passive immunity is provided by antibodies produced by another human being or animal.
- Full-term babies acquire passive immunity from their mother’s antibodies during the final months of pregnancy.
- Patients can acquire passive immunity through antibody-containing blood products derived from human or animal sources.
Passive immunity provides protection that is immediate but fades within weeks or months.
Learn more by visiting the CDC.gov website.
