Due to a cardiac condition I am routinely subjected to sharp spikes in blood pressure, and I lose a considerable amount of blood through my nasal passages - up to 20-30 ml in a week on some occasions. I overcame H1N1 (swine flu) in the spring of 2009, and I read that surviving the disease offers immunity to a wide range of other flu viruses as the b-cells create a multitude of different anti-bodies while in the process of recognizing the pathogen. I bleed often - am I losing these anti-bodies in the process?
Nope. Simple version: Your immune memory resides not in your blood, but elsewhere in the body, particularly the bone marrow, spleen, and lymphatics. From those locations, mature disease fighting cells are sent out, armed with appropriate immune defenses, some of which had been induced by previous vaccinations.
Thank you for your reply. It seems that some diseases offer a lifetime of immunity, whilst others do not (meningitis group c is an example of this).
This is true. Immunology is an immensely complicated subject.
BTW, strictly mentioning, you may lose antibodies, but the important thing is that you won’t lose the cells that create them. So even if you lose the antibody molecules, your memory cells that can make more of those antibodies are found elsewhere.
I have received vaccinations for tetanus, diptheria and pneumonia as well as tuberculosis. Will immunity to these pathogens be reduced by me losing blood over the years? I am still naive in immunology…
Not in any real or significant way, no.
Catch that the regularly used, BCG vaccine that is given during childhood, is greatly effective against infant TB, which is much more dangerous and lethal than the chronic adult TB most commonly known. Unfortunately BCG vaccine is not as effective against this adult TB as it is against the childhood form.