Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) - Currently, mass vaccination against coronavirus infection is being carried out in many countries. In our country, it is also planned to carry out mass vaccination of the population against COVID-19 this year. How do vaccines work? Can they guarantee long-term protection?

Botirjon Kurbanov, deputy head of the Sanitary-Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health Service, answered these questions from the Press Service of the Ministry of Health.

- How do vaccines work?

- Vaccines reduce the risk of disease by working with the immune system of our body. A vaccine is a weakened, harmless fragment of a microbe (virus or bacteria). When we receive a vaccine, our immune system reacts and recognizes the invading microbe, makes antibodies to fight it, and remembers how to fight it.

If you are exposed to this microbe in the future, your immune system will already know how to kill it without getting sick.

Thus, the vaccine is a safe and effective agent that induces an immune response in the body. It is better to prevent the disease by vaccination than to treat it after the disease has already arisen.

- Can vaccines guarantee long-term protection?

- More research is needed to answer this question. Most people recovering from COVID-19 reportedly develop immunity. Time will tell how long it lasts.

- Which lasts longer: immunity after being infected with COVID-19 or protection from the COVID-19 vaccine?

- The formation of natural immunity as a result of infection with an infection is different for all people - depending on the characteristics of the organism.

Since this virus is new, we do not yet know the exact answer. Reportedly, it can last up to 90 days after the initial infection.

The real life impact of the COVID-19 vaccine is currently being studied by all international research institutes and vaccine manufacturers. One thing is certain about the duration of immunity after vaccination: all researchers claim that these vaccines develop immunity against the disease for a full year after they are taken.