As a child, you had chicken pox. You are exposed to chicken pox several years later but do not get them again. What kind of immunity do you have?

The correct answer is natural active immunity. This type of immunity develops when a person is exposed to a pathogen and subsequently their immune system mounts a response to that pathogen. In the case of chicken pox, when you had the disease as a child, your immune system recognized the varicella zoster virus and generated a specific immune response. This response included the production of antibodies and memory cells that can recognize the virus if you are exposed to it again in the future.

Several years later, when you were exposed to chicken pox again but did not contract the disease, it indicates that your immune system retained the memory of the virus due to the previous infection. The memory cells activated in response to the second exposure prevented the disease from reoccurring, confirming that your immunity is indeed natural and active.

Natural immunity refers to the protection gained through natural exposure to the pathogen, while active implies that the body’s immune system has been stimulated to produce a response, which includes the development of antibodies. In contrast, artificial immunity involves medical interventions like vaccinations or antibody infusions, and passive immunity involves receiving antibodies from another source, rather than generating them through one’s own immune response.