According to Principles of Vaccination Document from the CDC, active immunity is the activation of the immune system due to infection or vaccination that results in the production of one’s own antibodies1. On the other hand, passive immunity is described as someone receiving antibodies produced by another person or an animal1. Active immunity is generally long lasting while passive immunity is temporary as a result of the differences in how the antibodies are acquired.  Passive immunity can occur naturally, a mother passing antibodies through the placenta or through breast milk, or artificially, receiving antibodies from an injection2,6.  Some other sources of passive immunity can include full blood/ blood parts, homologous pooled human antibody (immune globulin), homologous human hyperimmune globulin, or heterologous hyperimmune serum (antitoxin)1.” Passive immunity is also immediate, while active immunity can take several weeks to develop3. The degradation of the antibodies as a result of fragmentation, reducing in the time the antibodies can provide immunity, is the cause of the short-term effectiveness of passive immunity4. Active immunity allows for long lasting immunity because there are different types of cells that produced.  Memory B cells, which reside in the bone marrow or circulate in the blood, are made during the process of the immune response and upon reinfection can produce antibodies that are generated faster in comparison to the initial reaction and antibodies that have a higher affinity for the antigen1.  Without the production of the memory cells, active immunity would not be long lasting because the immune system would not have the ability to recognize antigen that it had encountered previously5.

1.https://d1311w59cs7lwz.cloudfront.net/attachment/95123/945f39c8ebc17c654c822a56a33a16c307d70cc2/Principles_Vaccination_CDC.pdf?Expires=1475016389&Signature=B1Z7jtpKLou7U24gs9hlfm0~gAr2089pwUjnPfCUTfFVNjzq8iEfsk2sYBd8V-40bSVRWORxgTdL2SiNa6Gu6AdtvZIZ0wtTZ1evbbGGU7g-HLdmkIq0MGl0S2INyKbG6ztaMXplnzuFJbnhXEvjvT6LDGKWBFNQv0i3-vxzsnvv1llPogn08GnaDuQxWmPOmkaSmyzb5zuQU9wMXtlAjBegY2E0rKCpzuT6bmQSsROVkWlsmjR7FgLiendTpSzn1rEvoknUnCNbQr3HeRH9SYe-NoGC4M~PkR9ieNwRm7D9wuWgO87l3nRsG47U3jM6h6x4REPK4KPk~oE1603EDw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJELYXGUCCDL7FUQA

2. https://aidsinfo.nih.gov/education-materials/glossary/552/passive-immunity

3. http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/immunity-types.htm

4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3149706/#R1

5. http://www.jmordoh.com.ar/clases/plasmocitos.pdf

6. http://moniquesbiologyproject.weebly.com/passive-and-acquired-immunity.html