I suppose one could generalise “vaccine” to include any treatment that must be proactive rather than reactive, even if the mechanism doesn’t match the classic germ-theory “vaccine”. We’re dealing with Mad Science™ here, remember?
Remember that a virus or a bacterial strain has to reproduce itself to reach a population that can harm the host. The speed with which it does so affects incubation time at least as much as the overall harmfulness of the species you’re dealing with. If you can inject half a billion damaged versions of the pathogen for your immune system to practice against while there’s still only a couple hundred thousand versions of the real deal around, your blood will be flooded with optimized antibodies before the infectious agent reaches the threshold quantity that would allow it to harm you.
The vast majority of vaccines can be effective if administered post-infection, as a therapeutic (rather than prophylactic) measure. They work by providing a weakened or inactive strain of the virus that is easier for the immune system to combat, and by providing chemicals that act as immunoresponse boosters, temporarily increasing the body’s natural production rate of white blood cells. As such, vaccines are certainly more effective if used preventatively, but can act as a “cure” for someone who’s already infected.
… How would a vaccine help if he is already infected, given that the whole point of a vaccine is controlled infection?
I suppose one could generalise “vaccine” to include any treatment that must be proactive rather than reactive, even if the mechanism doesn’t match the classic germ-theory “vaccine”. We’re dealing with Mad Science™ here, remember?
Post-exposure vaccination is standard for some things. Rabies, for instance.
Yeah, there are a few things it works for. I believe the idea is to get your immune systems attention faster than the disease would by itself.
What Kaydrien said is pretty much it.
Remember that a virus or a bacterial strain has to reproduce itself to reach a population that can harm the host. The speed with which it does so affects incubation time at least as much as the overall harmfulness of the species you’re dealing with. If you can inject half a billion damaged versions of the pathogen for your immune system to practice against while there’s still only a couple hundred thousand versions of the real deal around, your blood will be flooded with optimized antibodies before the infectious agent reaches the threshold quantity that would allow it to harm you.
The vast majority of vaccines can be effective if administered post-infection, as a therapeutic (rather than prophylactic) measure. They work by providing a weakened or inactive strain of the virus that is easier for the immune system to combat, and by providing chemicals that act as immunoresponse boosters, temporarily increasing the body’s natural production rate of white blood cells. As such, vaccines are certainly more effective if used preventatively, but can act as a “cure” for someone who’s already infected.