VACCINE AIN'T SERUM!

In these days of the “flu scare” which we experience every fall, accentuated this time with concern about Swine Flu, one often hears and reads of “serum” being distributed by the Federal Government.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS SWINE FLU SERUM! And, there is no such thing as “regular flu” serum, for that matter.

There is a swine flu vaccine, however, and for better or worse, that is what the government is distributing, as well as “regular” flu virus vaccine.

What then is the difference between a vaccine and a serum?

A vaccine consists of a live or dead virus or bacterium (in street parlance, a live or dead “bug”) that is especially prepared, when live (often on egg substrate when it has to do with a virus), so that it can then be injected (or instilled in the nose). The human subject so injected then makes its own antibodies against the pathogen (the agent causing disease), if that subject is capable of doing so. HIV patients, for one example, may be “immuno-compromised” and cannot make their own antibodies. That is a different medical problem.

A serum, on the other hand, consists of a part of the plasma (the liquid part of the blood without the cells) plus antibodies already made by somebody else (be it an animal, or much less frequently another human). For example: Anti-snake venom antibodies are usually made in a large animal, such as a horse, by repeatedly injecting that animal with an appropriately diluted snake poison so that the animal, usually a horse, makes antibodies against the snake poison. When it is determined that there is a high enough concentration of antibodies in the blood of the “animal host,” a large amount of blood is drawn, and processed so that the final product is serum containing antibodies. This serum is what is injected into victims of snakebite, so long as that victim is not allergic to horse serum! The antibodies “fight” the snake venom that is circulating in the victim’s blood, and, if all goes well, the victim is saved!

Dallas Tuthill, M.D.