Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Will vaccines eventually replace antibiotics?


Answer:
never
vaccines are meant to provide immunity to certain infectious agents. They work well, but not always completely, and vaccination really only works if EVERYONE gets the vaccine in a given population...and we never have 100% compliance. And even so, it is nearly impossible to prethink every infectious agent and make a vaccine for it. Even when we try, new organisms pop up (Lyme Disease, hantavirus, etc.)
antibiotics (and anti-fungals, anti-virals) are meant to treat infections and keep the infection from getting worse. these are two halves of strategy to keep us healthy. Neither alone is enough and neither will ever replace the other.
No, because viruses are constantly evolving so there's always a backlog between when one arises and when a vaccine can be developed.However, the viruses are also evolving to become resistant to antibiotics, so new ones are having to be developed all the time.edit: whoops, the guy below is right *blush*
"No, because viruses are constantly evolving so there's always a backlog between when one arises and when a vaccine can be developed.However, the viruses are also evolving to become resistant to antibiotics, so new ones are having to be developed all the time."Don't listen to that guy. Antibiotics aren't given for viruses. I think that someday we will have more vaccines for infections than we have now, but I doubt they will totally replace them. Not any time soon anyway.
no, vaccines are meant to provide short term immunity. Vaccines fake out the normal immune system to think that it has gotten the virus to be able to develop some antibodies for a certain virus. I am not saying that vaccines are the way to go. Just look at it, a vaccine is made up mostly of chemical properties that damage other areas of the body, alot of the time it attacks the nervous system, immune system, and the neurological system. Like the chicken pocks vaccine is only effective for a short period of about 5 years. If you get that virus as a child you develop a lifetime immunity to it. If you get the virus as a teenager or an adult when the vaccine has mos likely worn off than it has even worse effects and the fatality rate increases dramatically.
Antibiotics take the place of the immune system and instead of allowing the body to fight an infection the antibiotics go in and kill the infection and unfortunately our bodies immune system over time weakens and falls victim to the same virus over and over again because it does not have the antibodies built up to be able to destroy an infection its self.

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