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Vaccines: Mechanism of Protection

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A vaccine builds immunity by exposing the immune system to a live-attenuated, killed, or subunit form of a virus, without causing full disease.

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A killed-virus vaccine cannot cause infection, while a live-attenuated one replicates poorly, both training the immune system to recognize the virus.

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A live-attenuated vaccine carries a small risk of reverting to a disease-causing form, unlike a killed-virus vaccine.