can you get permanent immunity and avoid having the disease making you sick?i was reading my biology text book and i came across permanent immunity, it said once the body has been exposed to a pathogen, millions of memory B and T cells remain capable of producing specific antibodies to that pathogen. Does this mean that someone could get a just get a slight case of chicken pox and cure it with a blood transfusion from another person that has already had chicken pox? how does this work, or does it work for that matter? just wondering if they can do that to avoid getting really sick with a disease
Answer by Zach Jankowski
Yes, you can. When you get a bacterial or viral infection, the germs multiply inside your body. Your immune system reacts by fighting these germs, and this is why you get sick. After the infection is destroyed, your immune system will remember these pathogens and will be better-suited to destroy them more efficiently in the future, typically before you feel sick.
However, you can't cure the chickenpox via a blood transfusion--in fact, you can't cure a viral infection at all! All doctors can do for viral infections is treat your symptoms (prescribe fever reducers, cough suppressants, etc). Your own immune system must sort out the infection on its own. It is, however, possible to introduce a weakened or similar strain of a virus that is less harmful to allow the immune system to gain an immunity against that virus. This is only effective if you haven't been infected by the virus yet, though. These are what are called vaccinations. A flu vaccine (or chickenpox vaccine) is merely an injection of dead influenze cells to allow the body to build up an immunity to that strain of influenza. That way, if you come across the flu, your body will be able to quickly kill it off before it makes you sick.
However, this does not mean building an immunity up against a virus will make it impossible for you to be infected by it. Sometimes peoples' immune systems are weakened, and they are more susceptible to infection. In these instances, it is possible to be infected by a virus that you already have an immunity against--which is why it's possible sometimes for people to get chickenpox more than once.
Answer by Jessica
Some sicknesses, yes, you have permanent immunity once you get it. For example, smallpox is one of these sicknesses.
No, once you have chickenpox, it's always in your body forever.
Get the facts on the chickenpox vaccine, treatment, causes (varicella zoster virus, VZV), symptoms and signs (itchy, red rash).
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