Those with a beter background in immunology...

[DeadCactus]

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What happens when you get a vaccine that requires a series, but don't complete the series? Hep B or Japanese Encephalitis for example; if you get the first two in the series but neglect the third what happens? Do you not develop the same level of resistance to the disease? Does the resistance just wear off sooner than it would with the complete series?

 

[DrBrizzle]

an online pre-med forum is probably not the best place to ask this. Ask a physician.

 

[Ibn Rushd]

My understanding is that successive shots are given to bolster the immune response, to help make it more complete. They're more colloquially known as "booster shots" anyway. Missing one or two would probably result in a weaker, less comprehensive, vaccination though it obviously depends on the individual.

 

[DeadCactus]

Just to clarify: I'm asking a question out of curiosity, not looking for medical advice.

 

[Myuu]

Just to clarify: I'm asking a question out of curiosity, not looking for medical advice.

It depends on how strong the body's response to the thing they're using to vaccinate you (protein, whole organism, etc) is. Usually the ones that require booster shoots are recombinant vaccines that utilize modified proteins derived from the pathogen to drive an immune response, albeit one that is weaker than whole-cell vaccines.

 

[Myuu]

The type of immune response the vaccine elicits is another factor that influences the efficacy of these boosters.

 

[CD4helpCD8]

It varies: For example, the old Hep B vaccine requires 4 shots in total, but some people who only got the first three still developed immunity against Hep B (based on Ab titer). The boost shots are designed primarily to increase the precursor frequency of T or B cells against the specific antigen(s) in a given vaccine. Also, it is possible that protective immunity against certain pathogens requires antigen persistence to maintain "memory," a hot topic that has been debated in the last two or three decades. As Myuu said, it also depends on what kind of immune response you want to elicit through vaccination; for example, CD4+ T memory response against flu virus tend to wane much quicker than CD8+ T cells against the same virus (but different antigen epitope, apparently).

 

[Compass]

Why don't you ask your personal doctor about this? After all, isn't he the one who calls the shots?

 

[Law2Doc]

My understanding is that successive shots are given to bolster the immune response, to help make it more complete. They're more colloquially known as "booster shots" anyway. Missing one or two would probably result in a weaker, less comprehensive, vaccination though it obviously depends on the individual.

Usually if a vaccine requires 3 shots, it means that only an unacceptably low percentage of recipients (eg 20%?) will develop immunity with only two. It's not like you will be resistant, only weaker if that's what the above poster is suggesting-- it's going to be an all or nothing thing. Either two was enough to stimulate immunity, or more often it wasn't. So if you only had two, you will want to get titers drawn, or else assume you don't have immunity and restart the series. It is very dangerous to assume you are among the lucky immune few and go work in an environment where you may be exposed.