Before, not after

The idea

Vaccines are preventive, not curative: they help prevent serious diseases before they happen but cannot treat a disease once someone is already sick.

Prevention is better than cure

People say, "Prevention is better than cure." A vaccine is a medicine of a special kind.

Does a vaccine cure a disease that someone already has?

• No, it helps prevent a disease
• Yes, always
• Only for children

When is it given?

Give the vaccine at each time and see what happens.

Preventive, not curative

Vaccines are preventive, not curative. They help prevent serious diseases before they happen but cannot treat a disease once someone is already sick.

Getting vaccinated protects you and also the people around you.

• When | What a vaccine does
• Before the disease (while healthy) | Helps prevent serious disease
• After the person is already sick | Does not treat it. The person needs a doctor

Notes

Vaccines are preventive, not curative. They help prevent serious diseases before they happen but cannot treat a disease once someone is already sick.

Check yourself

Vaccines are...

When should a vaccine be given to help prevent a disease?

A child already has the flu. Will a vaccine cure it now?

• preventive, not curative — correct. Yes. They help prevent diseases.
• curative, not preventive. A vaccine does not treat a disease that has already started.
• neither preventive nor curative. Vaccines help prevent serious diseases.
• Before the person gets the disease — correct. Yes. The immune system is trained in advance.
• After the person is very sick. A vaccine cannot treat a disease once someone is already sick.
• Only when the disease is over. It is meant to help prevent the disease, so it is given before.
• No. A vaccine does not treat a disease once someone is already sick — correct. Yes. The child needs a doctor's care.
• Yes, it cures every disease at once. Vaccines are preventive, not curative.
• Yes, if it is given twice. Vaccines do not treat a disease that has already started.