Vaccines are used as a preventative medicine to fight infectious diseases and viruses. They train your body to produce antibodies that fight particular diseases. Vaccines contain an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, this is typically in the form of a killed or weakened form of germs like viruses or bacteria. This is used to mimic the disease and build up the body’s natural antibody production.

In the future, if the body comes across that particular disease again it will remember the antibodies it needs to produce and how to fight it. A vaccine is usually administered through needle injections. In some cases, vaccines can be administered through the mouth or nose, although this is incredibly rare.