Mark is a technician in a blood bank at a local hospital. It is required that ev

Question

Mark is a technician in a blood bank at a local hospital. It is required that everyone who works with human blood products be vaccinated against hepatitis B virus. Following his vaccination it was found that Mark was not responsive. As Mark's physician you decide to investigate into Mark’s family medical history. You find out that both of Mark parents worked for the American Red -Cross when Mark was conceived. As Red Cross workers, Mark parents had to be vaccinated against hepatitis B virus. The vaccine used was a live attenuated virus.

Choose the correct answer and fully defend your answer.

Mark's failure to respond to the vaccine is due to:

A) bad and ineffective vaccine

b) Mark's parents were not careful while taking the vaccine

c) Mark did not really take the vaccine

d) Mark has no B- cells to respond to the vaccine

Explanation / Answer

The live attenuated virus vaccine which Mark's parents received was also received by Mark through the placenta of his mother. During the early stages of human development, the immune system is learning to recognize between the 'self' and the 'non-self' antigens. The attenuated virus was some how transported to the developing foetus through mother's blood and Mark's immune system recognized it as a normal 'self' antigen instead of a foreign 'non-self' antigen and produced no immune response or immunological memory of the virus. Years later when he himself was vaccinated with the same virus his body responded as if it were a 'self' antigen and thus did not produced any immune response against it and no B-Cells were formed. Thus, option d) is the correct option.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse M
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.