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Natural immunity is inherited from parents and allows the immune system to distinguish between self and non-self, fighting off common ailments. Acquired immunity is developed over time through exposure to antigens, building a library of specific immune responses.
Natural immunity describes the state of being able to resist disease; this condition originates in a healthy immune system. This form of immunity is resistance that you inherit from your parents, as opposed to acquired immunity, which you develop over the course of your life. Acquired immunity is built when a given disease is suffered and overcome; memory cells in the immune system essentially learn about the disease and remember how to fight it in the future. If an individual was not born with some form of inherited immunity, they are unlikely to survive their infancy, as there are many common diseases that would be deadly to those without any immunity.
One of the major properties of a healthy and effective immune system is the ability to distinguish between self and non-self. Natural immunity bestows that ability on a child to some extent, enabling his or her immune system to identify and fight off threats. If one’s immune system were unable to make the distinction between self and non-self, it would likely attack various necessary aspects of the body rather than harmful and antagonistic elements. Natural immunity ensures this is not a problem in healthy children; their immune systems are already capable of distinguishing self from non-self, identifying threats, and fighting off a number of common ailments.
The mechanisms of natural and acquired immunity are closely related to molecules called antigens. Antigens are substances that elicit some form of immune response. Once the immune system is confronted with a particular antigen, it tends to remember it and is able to mount a much more effective defense the next time the antigen that triggered the response appears. Hereditary immunity requires no such memory; the immune system is immediately capable of responding effectively to certain antigens based, to some extent, on the acquired immune systems of an individual’s parents.
The immune response can be specific or non-specific, based on the particular nature of the threat to an individual’s health. Specific immune responses are targeted at specific threats, while non-specific immune responses are effective against a wide variety of problems. Most of the capabilities of natural immunity focus on non-specific immune responses that can handle many types of threats. After birth, when an individual is exposed to a variety of diseases and antigens through diseases or vaccines, they begin to build a library of specific and targeted immune responses that enable them to effectively address a variety of specific threats.
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