It’s always better to prevent a disease than to treat it. Vaccine prevent disease in the people who receive them. If enough people are vaccinated against a disease, then the disease cannot spread into their community. This is known as “Community Immunity.”
How do Vaccines Protect from Diseases?
When our immune system recognizes germs that enter the body as “foreign” invaders, or antigens it works not only to clear your body of that invader, but also creates a large number of memory cells that are specifically tuned to react to it. This protection is called immunity. Vaccines contain little bits of a disease – broken down and harless, and when injected, stimulate the production of antibodies. Through vaccination, we develop immunity without suffering from the actual diseases that vaccines prevent.
The Burden of Influenza
- $24.6 billion in economic costs per year in the U.S. related to influenza and pneumonia
New vaccinations for emerging diseases and for infections that have been prevalent in the past offer hope for a healthier future for all.
What can I do?
RCR is currently seeking healthy volunteers for several investigational vaccine research studies. If you are over the age of 18, you could participate in one of the following investigational vaccine studies: