Dr. Cassagnol, Pharm.D.
"The mark of a leader in pharmacy is a person that realizes their professional obligation to give back to the community."
"The mark of a leader in pharmacy is a person that realizes their professional obligation to give back to the community."
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) is the organization whose members are recognized in society as essential in all patient care settings for optimal medication use that improves health, wellness, and quality of life. Through information, education, and advocacy, APhA empowers its members to improve medication use and advance patient care by...
Find out more...The Operation Immunization project
Background Information
Many people have already experienced what immunization is. It basically involves a person traveling to a doctor's office, waiting in line, and then getting a "shot" in the arm. Sometimes, patrons are recommended to drink lots of fluids. Yet what exactly is the purpose of this "shot" in the arm?
It all started in 1796 when a man named Edward Jenner discovered that by inoculating people with cowpox, these people would not be infected with smallpox ever. Though a huge scientific breakthrough, it was unexplainable at the time. Later on in the early 1900's, when science finally regconized the existence of viruses and antibodies, was this method understood. The principle was to give the host a weak dose of the disease causing agent, or pathogen, so that it is easily fought off. But after fighting it off, the host immune system would remember this particular disease so that the next time it gets an infection, it is easily fought off.
Because of this, the ability for a pathogens to infect a person is hampered dramatically, therefore halting disease in a person and preventing epidemics in a population. This is the main reason why immunization is the main arsenal of public health professionals. This is also a good substitute for medication use because it has little side effects and, economically speaking, its a cheaper solution. Sadly, not every type of disease has a vaccine yet but there are progress to it.
Types of Immunization
There are two types of immunization methods: active and passive. Active immunization uses weakened or modified pathogens to induce an immunoresponse within the host. The host is meant to defeat the injected pathogens so that antibodies may develope. The problem with this type of immunization is that it takes weeks for the immunity to take full affect and people with weak immune systems may have trouble defeating even weakened pathogens.
The other type is passive immunization which does not use pathogens in the vaccination, rather it uses antibodies from another host who already contracted and survived the pathogen. The target host gets the immunity quickly but also losses it quickly because the immune system never "fought off" the pathogen and therefore do not contain memory to create new antibodies after it is used up. This type of immunization is useful for those who have weak immune systems or when the person has already been infected and antibodies are quickly needed to combat the pathogen.
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