Talk:Booster dose

From WikiProjectMed
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Here is what I'm thinking for the introductory section--it would be great to get some feedback!

In medicine, a booster dose is an extra administration of a vaccine after an earlier (prime) dose. After initial immunization, a booster injection or booster dose is a re-exposure to the immunizing antigen cell. It is intended to increase immunity against that antigen back to protective levels after it has been shown to have decreased after a specified period. For example, tetanus shot boosters are often recommended every 10 years.[1] The need for a booster dose is evaluated in several ways, including the immune response after a booster dose is administered, active B and T cell activity after a certain amount of time that the primary vaccine was given, and prevalence of the disease in vaccinated populations.[2] Anamnestic response, the rapid production of antibodies after a stimulus of an antigen, is a typical way to measure the need for a booster dose of a certain vaccine. If anamneestic response is high after receiving a primary vaccine many years ago, there is most likely little to no need for a booster dose.[3]

If a patient receives a booster dose but already has a high level of antibody, then a reaction called an Arthus reaction could develop, a localized form of Type III hypersensitivity induced by high levels of IgG antibodies causing inflammation.[4] The inflammation is often self-resolved over the course of of a few days, but could be avoided altogether by increasing the length of time between the primary vaccine and the booster dose.[5]

It is not yet fully clear why some vaccines such as Hepatitis A and B are effective for life, and some such as tetanus need boosters. In most cases, the booster serves as a 'reminder' to the immune system. [6] This is especially pertinent if the immune system responds to a primary vaccine rapidly, so that the body does not have time to sufficiently develop immunological memory against the disease. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Immcarle11 (talkcontribs) 23:35, 10 February 2016 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Booster dose. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

  • If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
  • If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 01:24, 6 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]