Published in the United States of America by Cherry Lake Publishing Ann Arbor Michigan www cherrylakepublishing com Content Adviser Marjan Eggermont Senior Instructor Schulich School of Engineering Calgary Alberta Canada Reading Adviser Marla Conn ReadAbility Inc Design The Design Lab Photo Credits Cover and page 3 Nixx Photography Shutterstock Inc cover inset Emilio Ereza Alamy page 4 iStockphoto com PhotoEuphoria page 6 Classic Image Alamy page 7 Art Directors TRIP Alamy pages 9 and 10 blickwinkel Alamy page 13 iStockphoto com JanekWD page 14 Skynavin Shutterstock Inc page 15 Blend Images Alamy page 16 Canadian Press via AP Images page 17 Michael Rosenfeld picture-alliance dpa AP Images pages 18 and 27 AP Photo John D McHugh page 20 PRNewsFoto Minnesota Thermal Science page 21 Adam Ziaja Shutterstock Inc page 23 Ilike Shutterstock Inc page 24 PHOVOIR Alamy page 25 Monkey Business Images Shutterstock Inc page 28 Ugo Cei Alamy page 29 The Print Collector Alamy Copyright 2014 by Cherry Lake Publishing All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Yomtov Nel From African plant to vaccine preservative by Nel Yomtov pages cm Innovations from Nature Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 978-1-62431-753-8 lib bdg ISBN 978-1-62431-765-1 pdf ISBN 978-1-62431-759-0 pbk ISBN 978-1-62431-771-2 e-book 1 Vaccines Juvenile literature 2 Drugs Preservation Juvenile literature 3 Desert plants Juvenile literature 4 Biomimicry Juvenile literature I Title RM281 Y66 2014 615 3’72 dc23 2013030376 Cherry Lake Publishing would like to acknowledge the work of The Partnership for 21st Century Skills Please visit www p21 org for more information Printed in the United States of America Corporate Graphics Inc January 2014
VV Chapter One Keeping You Healthy Chapter Two A Remarkable Desert Plant Chapter Three How It’s Done Chapter Four A Sweet Future Chapter Five Vaccine Visionaries Glossary For More Information Index About the Author 4 9 14 20 25 30 31 32 32 INNOVATIONS FROM NATURE
4 Nobody likes getting shots They can hurt and the sight of getting jabbed with a sharp needle can be scary However shots keep us healthy Some of the shots we get are called vaccinations Vaccinations prevent us from getting serious diseases that can make us very ill or even die When you think about it the sting of a shot isn’t nearly as bad as those diseases CHAPTER ONE Shots aren’t fun but they are an important part of staying healthy From African Plant to Vaccine Preservative
Keeping You Healthy 5 Our bodies get sick when germs such as viruses and some bacteria invade them When the measles virus enters your body it gives you measles Tetanus bacteria cause tetanus a disease of the muscles When germs enter your body they begin to multiply Your body recognizes these invading germs and makes substances called antibodies to fight them The germs have a head start though By the time your body produces enough antibodies to destroy them you will probably be sick already The antibodies have two jobs First they help destroy the attacking germs Then they remain in your body to guard against future infections If the same germs try to infect you again even after many years the antibodies will protect you This time they can destroy the germs before you get sick The part of your body that makes antibodies and fights infections is called the immune system The only problem with this system is that you have to get sick before you develop a protection against specific germs That’s where vaccinations come in Vaccinations give you protection from a disease before it can make you sick They contain a type of medicine called a vaccine Vaccines are made from the same germ that causes the disease For example the measles vaccine is made from the measles virus The germs in vaccines are either dead or weakened so they won’t make you sick INNOVATIONS FROM NATURE
