A young couple brings their 3-month old baby to the emergency department where you work as a triage nurse. The parents tell you that the baby had a runny nose, low grade fever, and mild cough two days earlier, which they assumed was a cold. However, the cough has become significantly worse and they are really worried about the gasping sound the child makes when breathing in after a coughing spell. The baby's cough is so bad that she has been vomiting and is refusing to feed. You are concerned that the baby has pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. You give the parents some information while they are waiting for a physician to examine their child.
-The parents tell you that their baby has already had a DTaP vaccine and that they thought this would protect the child from pertussis. You explain that this vaccine is given in a series and that with each shot in the series, the child's immunity will increase. You explain that while their baby was born with ________ immunity, she only started to develop ________ immunity after birth, so is still vulnerable to certain infections such as pertussis.

Question

A young couple brings their 3-month old baby to the emergency department where you work as a triage nurse. The parents tell you that the baby had a runny nose, low grade fever, and mild cough two days earlier, which they assumed was a cold. However, the cough has become significantly worse and they are really worried about the gasping sound the child makes when breathing in after a coughing spell. The baby's cough is so bad that she has been vomiting and is refusing to feed. You are concerned that the baby has pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough. You give the parents some information while they are waiting for a physician to examine their child.
-The parents tell you that their baby has already had a DTaP vaccine and that they thought this would protect the child from pertussis. You explain that this vaccine is given in a series and that with each shot in the series, the child's immunity will increase. You explain that while their baby was born with ________ immunity, she only started to develop ________ immunity after birth, so is still vulnerable to certain infections such as pertussis.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The baby was born with innate immunity, which is the non-specific defense mechanisms that the body has against pathogens since birth. However, the adaptive immunity, which is the specific defense mechanisms that the body develops in response to exposure to specific pathogens, only starts to develop after birth. The DTaP vaccine stimulates the adaptive immunity to produce antibodies that protect against pertussis. The innate immunity alone is not sufficient to protect the baby from pertussis, especially since the baby's immune system is not fully developed yet.

A Young Couple Brings Their 3-Month Old Baby to the Emergency