Acquired immunity

A type of immunity that develops when a person’s immune system responds to a foreign substance or microorganism, or that occurs after a person receives antibodies from another source. The two types of acquired immunity are adaptive and passive. Adaptive immunity occurs in response to being infected with or vaccinated against a microorganism. The body makes an immune response, which can prevent future infection with the microorganism. Passive immunity occurs when a person receives antibodies to a disease or toxin rather than making them through his or her own immune system.

Explore Medical Terms

20000+ Medical & Health Terms for Doctors, students & patients from a medical dictionary. Our experts define difficult medical & health language in easy-to-understand explanations of each and every medical term.

Medical & Health Terms online medical dictionary provides quick & easy access to hard-to-spell and often misspelled medical & health definitions through an extensive alphabetical A-Z listing.