Herd immunity

From Conservapedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by BernardC (Talk | contribs) at 21:51, October 4, 2011. It may differ significantly from current revision.

Jump to: navigation, search

Community immunity is having a large percentage of the population vaccinated in order to prevent the spread of certain infectious diseases. Even individuals not vaccinated (such as newborns and those with chronic illnesses) are offered some protection because the disease has little opportunity to spread within the community. This is also known as herd immunity.[1] The thresholds for herd immunity to protect against various diseases range from 85% to 94% vaccination rates.[2]

References

  1. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/about/terms/glossary.htm#c
  2. http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/training/overview/pdf/eradicationhistory.pdf