SUMMARY WRITING

Rafael Setiawan
1606833412
Teknik Metalurgi dan Material
Is natural immunity better than a flu vaccine?
Is the immunity acquired by having the flu any more beneficial than immunity acquired
via a flu shot?

Getting the flu itself can provide much stronger immunity than any flu shot does. But
getting the flu is dangerous, so getting a flu shot is a better option.

When a flu virus enters your body, the immune system fights the infection by producing
a robust antibody response that can spring into action if the same strain of the virus
returns. That protection can in some cases last a lifetime. “The evidence we have is that
people who were infected back in the ‘30s still have immunity to those viruses,” says Dr.
Alicia Fry, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Studies also show that even when the antibody response wanes, immunity from a
natural infection tends to last longer than that from a vaccine. A 2011 study in PLoS
One, for example, found that just over half of patients infected with the 2009 H1N1 flu
still had an antibody response after six months, while only about a third of vaccinated
subjects did.

So why isn’t natural immunity better? For one, natural infection will very likely make
you sick. “When people become infected with the flu, they feel terrible. They miss
school. They miss work. Some people end up in the hospital, and some people die,” says
Dr. Fry. The risks are particularly concerning for older people, those with chronic
diseases, pregnant women and young children. Even if you are healthy, you could put
your family and others in your community at risk for infection.

Further, natural immunity to one flu virus won’t protect you from most other strains of
the virus. “If you were infected with a specific flu virus, your natural immunity would be
very good at protecting you against that virus or a similar virus in the future,” says Dr.
Fry. But flu viruses evolve quickly and can change from year to year, and several strains
of virus typically circulate in any given year. The flu vaccine is updated annually to
target the strains most likely to circulate. That, along with its fleeting protection, is why
it’s recommended you get a flu shot every year.

Finally, there’s no guarantee you’ll get a robust immune response from infection. It
depends on several factors, including your previous exposure to flu viruses, your body’s
immune response and how much of the virus you’re exposed to, according to Dr.
Suryaprakash Sambhara, an immunologist at the C.D.C.
Flu vaccines use either an inactivated virus or a weakened live virus to mimic infection
and spur a controlled immune response — but because the virus is weakened or
inactivated, you don’t actually get the flu. Flu vaccines can prevent about 50 to 60
percent of flu infections, according to the C.D.C. Until recently both types of vaccines
produced similar results. But over the last few years the live attenuated nasal spray
(FluMist), which uses a weakened live virus, has been found to be ineffective and is not
currently recommended by the C.D.C.

For perspective, a 2008 study published in Nature found that survivors of the 1918
Spanish flu got lifelong immunity to that flu virus and, as it turned out, protection
against the pandemic H1N1 flu in 2009. But the 1918 flu killed 50 million people
worldwide. Dr. Eric L. Altschuler, a professor at Temple University and an author of that
study, says it would be unwise to expose yourself to one flu virus in the hopes of gaining
protection against others. “You might have great immunity to flu x-y-z, but if it's p-d-q,
you don’t,” he says.

Source :

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/10/28/does-the-flu-provide-better-immunity-than-a-flu-
shot/?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fhealth

Summary :

The body’s immune system produces a robust antibody protection in order to fight a flu virus.
Immunity that comes from a natural infection tends to last longer than the vaccine ones. There are
some risk when you want to obtain natural immunity, like you will feel sick because you are infected by
the flu, also natural immunity can only protect specific types of virus. The other thing is there is no
guarantee that you will get the natural immunity for every occasion, meanwhile flu vaccine can prevent
50 to 60 percent of infection. The conclusion is that would be wiser to have a flu shot rather than expose
yourself to the flu virus.