Prophylaxis

The distinction is intent. The same antibiotic can be treatment when given for an established infection and prophylaxis when given to someone well, to stop one starting — before a surgical incision, for instance, or after a specific exposure. immunisationImmunisationImmunisation is the process of making a person immune to an infection, usually by giving a vaccine. In Pakistan it follows the Expanded Programme on Immunization schedule, which is free at government facilities.Read the full definition is prophylaxis in its purest form: the body is taught to recognise a pathogenPathogenA pathogen is any organism capable of causing disease — a bacterium, a virus, a fungus or a parasite. The term covers the cause of an infection regardless of which kind of organism it is.Read the full definition long before it meets one.

Prophylaxis is also used for non-infectious conditions. Someone with frequent migraineMigraineMigraine is a neurological condition causing attacks of headache that are typically one-sided and throbbing, often with nausea and a strong dislike of light and sound. It is not simply a severe headache — the attack has a recognisable pattern.Read the full definition attacks may take a daily medicine that does nothing for an attack in progress but reduces how often attacks occur — a preventer rather than a reliever, the same logic that separates a preventer inhaler from a bronchodilatorBronchodilatorA bronchodilator is a medicine that relaxes the muscle wrapped around the airways so they widen and air moves more freely. It relieves wheeze and breathlessness within minutes but does nothing about the underlying inflammation.Read the full definition in asthma.