Definition of vaccine
- a. - Of or pertaining to cows; pertaining to, derived from, or
caused by, vaccinia; as, vaccine virus; the vaccine disease.
- n. - The virus of vaccinia used in vaccination.
- n. - any preparation used to render an organism immune to some
disease, by inducing or increasing the natural immunity mechanisms.
Prior to 1995, such preparations usually contained killed organisms of
the type for which immunity was desired, and sometimes used live
organisms having attenuated virulence. since that date, preparations
containing only specific antigenic portions of the pathogenic organism
are also used, some of which are prepared by genetic engineering
techniques.