I was reading a book by one of my favorite authors Paul Brand and came across something very fascinating. The chapter was describing the development of the smallpox vaccination and an expedition sent out by the king of Spain to vaccinate Bogota Columbia in the midst of a smallpox outbreak. They had now to way to preserve the live vaccine during the long voyage so they created a human chain to incubate the vaccine during the months it took to reach Bogota.
The chapter went on to describe how the body's immune system creates antibodies specific to invaders that it has been exposed to. This is how a vaccine works, either by exposing the body to a weakened form of the invader allowing the body to create it's own antibodies or, in the case of immune globulin, by directly giving the body antibodies to protect against a given threat.
The next point Dr. Brand made was what blew my mind... We have a saviour who came to live among us in human form. He was despised and rejected, temped and ultimately killed all so that we could have eternal life. He overcame these things for us so that by his overcoming blood, we too can be overcomers! This brings a whole new meaning to "this is my blood which shed for you and body which was broken for you." We truly are saved by the blood of the lamb.
I took the opportunity to discuss this with my students this week. We ended up having a little Passover Seder in post clinical conference. There truly is power in the blood!
No comments:
Post a Comment