Question

You have probably never had a disease called measles, although your parents probably have. You received several vaccinations against measles to protect you from getting the disease. What was in those injections? What is this kind of immunity called?

Answer 1

MMR vaccines contain live measles, mumps and rubella viruses that have been weakened (attenuated), highly purified gelatine derived from pigs, used as a stabilizers (MMRVaxPro only; the other MMR vaccine used in the UK, Priorix, does not contain gelatine), sorbitol or mannitol, used as stabilizers, polysorbate 80, used as an emulsifier (to hold other ingredients together), recombinant human serum albumin, used as a stabiliser (MMRVaxPro only), The vaccine may also contain traces of neomycin, an antibiotic used to stop bacteria growing and contaminating the vaccine.

Vaccines are classified as an active immunity, however they are also often simply called 'vaccine immunity'.