“Sorry Sir! Can’t come to office… I am down with flu” “Sorry madam… my child will not be able to come to school…. he is down with flu” are such common sentences that we hardly take notice of them. Every now and then some or the other person in our neighbourhood or in our office or in our club-group is down with the flu. Doctors always advice to get you a flu shot in the start of the season and if you are among those who question the need and necessity of this, then you need to read this article and watch the video accompanying it.

When a virus takes over a cell, it transforms this infected cell into a huge factory of producing millions of infected cells which in turn infect other healthy cells inside your body. Here is where your immune system comes into play. The immune system should ideally be able to destroy the virus particles before they proliferate and infect other healthy cells. But in order to kill viruses and other pathogens, the cells of your immune system have to recognize them as intruders.

Every time your immune system encounters a pathogen, it creates B and T cells specially designed to target that intruder if it ever shows up again. That means your immune system can respond much more quickly and effectively to things it’s been exposed to before. To achieve this same feat, vaccines or flu shots are created. These shots are important because they expose your immune system to a weakened or dead version of a virus, so that the immune system in turn can create the B and T cells to fight these.

These flu shots or vaccines basically act as combat trainers for your immune system. Without this training, your immune system might not be able to identify various kinds of viruses and hence may not be able to fight them off.

So the next time, your doctor asks you to get a flu shot, go for it!

[adinserter block=”7″]

Author:Technology Blog