In the next series of posts we will cover an overview of immunology and the immune system, as well as a brief overview of common terminology. One thing everyone should understand is that the immune system is neither simple nor straightforward. It has many layers and types of defences as well as many pathways that are intertwined and interconnected. It can be quite confusing at first so bear with us.
Levels of Immunity
The immune system is divided up into multiple layers. This has evolved over millennia to provide us the necessary levels of defence against foreign pathogens. When a foreign object enters the body, it encounters the innate immune system, which is the first line of defence against foreign pathogens. This is a rather ubiquitous system and highly conserved among almost all living things on earth. Then comes the adaptive immune system, which is tends to act much slower. However, once it is activated it remembers that specific foreign object for life and upon future infection it acts almost immediately.
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| Picture from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
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