Medical Advances

Medical Advances Three of the near probatory medical checkup exam advances of the last two centuries ar sanitization, vaccination, and antibiotics. Each of these advances has engendered enormous positive loving and scotch rivals in work uped societies. Sanitation has successfully impeded morbific produce in tender alive spaces, vaccines gestate protected world beings from historic eithery fecund disorders such as smallpox, and antibiotics nurse also save countless(prenominal) homophile lives by means of daily sanitation and disease cure. However, the impact of these three advances has non been fully realized because they confuse not nevertheless reached substantial portions of the growing world, vaccines for sev periodl prolific diseases continue to elude queryers, and sophisticate of antibiotics has light-emitting diode to loathly bacterial strains and other health hazards. The rudiments of urban sanitation systems have been developed some(prenominal) times throughout human history but was at presenthere near fully realized until the era of western industrialization in the 20h century. Once urbanization in the bronzy age began to increase population densities in urban centers, increases in devastate intersection required the use of outflowing systems like rivers to properly stipulate of waste. The first documented system for sanitation was developed in the metropolis of Mohenjo-Daro in 2600 BCE, and consisted of slits cut in the floors of houses to allow waste to drib into containers adjoining to streets, and bath houses with covered channels that led to the nearby Indus River (Mohenjo-Daro). In addition, cities in the Roman Republic built the first documented sewer networks for instance a stackive combined sewer and storm drain called the toilet Maxima, or The Great Drain that carried waste and runoff pee from Romes civilian houses, public buildings, and bath houses to the Tiber River (Rich). However, the era that fo llowed the fall of the Roman Republic dictum a regression in sanitation technology in which almost of the worlds civilizations ope enumerated without sanitation systems. For instance, the most common method to remove waste from keep spaces in medieval Europe was to dump it into the street, where materials such as urine, feces, and sewer water from other home(prenominal) activities gathered and fostered bacterial, viral, and pest growth (Faria). Exp adeptntial growth of populations around industrializing centers without planned infrastructures made the immediate need for sewer systems evident. Citizens had to date relied either on dumping waste directly into waterways or ingenuous cesspits, and the rapid growth of households employ primitive sanitation methods increased the rate of contamination of groundwater, rivers, and other sources of fresh water. Stagnant cloaca in secure urban living conditions provided ideal conditions for growth of pathogens and caused outbreaks in many study cities in the mid-19th century the most common were those of cholera and typhoid fever. It was liberate that the need for advances in sanitation was imminent. The most famous outbreak of the industrialization period is that of cholera linked to the London Broad Street water pump in 1854, in which a nearby cesspool had leaked sewage into groundwater and contaminated the well the water pump was drawing water from. The statistical analysis of cholera cases by physician John Snow that dictated the connection between disease and contaminated water from the river provided irrefutable test that separating water resources and sewage is key to maintaining public health (Johnson). Outbreaks such as these in combination with the pro lifespanration of the strong repulsive odor of sewage crossways all major industrialized cities prompted governance authorities to take do and begin implementation of large sewer networks to isolate sewage from topical anaesthetic water supplies . Arguably the greatest advance in sanitation came around in 1908, when Jersey City Water Works began to add centiliter to its water supply network in a practice now called chlorination. The process involves the addition of chlorine to water to form an equilibrium dissolvent composed of chlorine, Hydrochloric acid and Hypochlorous acid, the last of which plays the main role of disinfection. Systemic chlorination drastically decreased the incidence of water-borne illnesses such as typhoid and cholera (Kitsap earthly concern public utility District). The final major advance came in the 1950s, when the United States establishment provided funds for states to build wastewater treatment plants, which resulted in the majority of U.S. cities discharging tough water into rivers and oceans instead of raw sewage, an important component of sanitation that minimizes reuptake of water harboring harmful pathogens and microorganisms. Development of modern sanitation systems has a significan t effect on economic growth because its presence dramatically reduces the incidence of water-borne diseases and precludes their burden on worker productivity, student absenteeism, and medical costs. In addition, the decline of sewage contamination in the developed world saves organizations the cost of cleanup position up environments to protect resources for human use. These benefits place in stark railway line the crude state of sanitation in parts of the developing world, who come apart to reap these benefits because sanitation systems have not been implemented. In fact, according to the land Health Organization, investing in sanitation technology in developing countries is cost-beneficial and results in a US$5 to US$11 economic benefit per US$1 invested (Walter, and Hutton 39). Thus, cost-benefit analysis clearly favors investment by gentleman for the whole of humanity. The complaisant benefits of stiff sanitation are not as tangible as economic ones but are no less sign ificant. Accessible facilities for private and sanitary hygienic activities preserves human dignity and encourages sanitary habits. The relationship between cleanliness and moral purity has been culturally accepted throughout human history, and scientific support that clean environments set ahead moral behavior is presented in an upcoming paper in psychological Science (Elton). The brotherly harmony that proper sanitation promotes supports the idea of implementing sanitation in the developing world to deal with social unrest and violence. The bit medical innovation, vaccination, is a more recent and specific advance in disease prevention. Its conceptual predecessor was inoculation, which was first documented credibly in 15th century China. The practice involved implantation of a disease agent such as pus from smallpox into a strong individual who had never been infected to produce immunity (Needham 134). Vaccination replaced inoculation in 1796 when Edward Jenner used pus from a cowpox patient to vaccinate a child the child was then exposed to smallpox and afterwards did not exhibit infection with the virus. Shortly afterwards the British government mandated vaccination of children from smallpox, the first government push for mass vaccination in history by 1800 100,000 people had been vaccinated in Europe, and vaccination had begun in the United States (Minna Stern, and Markel 613-614). In 1885, Louis Pasteur developed a rabies vaccine using essays obtained from dried infected rabbit tissue, which was the first to be manufactured from alter microorganisms. Further advances in biology and understanding of germs from the 19th century led to widespread research, development and implementation of vaccines to spread immunity from prolific diseases in the 20th century. A vaccine is now known as a preparation of attenuated or dead bacteria or viruses to puddle production of antibodies in a patient. Although weakened pathogens carried a greater attempt for in fection than dead ones, they generally induce a stronger tolerant reply and longer lasting immunity. A principal medical advance that allowed the production of durable vaccines is attenuation, the practice of passing the target virus through a nonhuman host to encourage adaptation through mutations when the virus replicated. incidental introduction into a human host to which the virus is not qualified to replicate allows the immune system to produce antibodies to recognize the same(prenominal) pathogen in future exposures. The development of consistently effective vaccines led to systematic mass immunizations against several worldwide diseases such as smallpox starting in the 19th century and polio in the mid-20th century. Government oversight in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) was essential to these worldwide efforts, and smallpox was in fact declared eradicated by the WHO in 1979 . Polio and measles are currently in the process of eradication (Smallpox). However, not all viruses are created equal, and certain viruses have eluded attempts by scientists to engineer an effective vaccine. The human immunodeficiency virus virus is one such example its high mutability and transmissible divergence complicate attempts to design a vaccine in the same fashion as that of historically successful ones. To address this need, research to develop new types of vaccines that utilize only protein subunits of pathogens or delivery of viral deoxyribonucleic acid is ongoing. The elimination of globally endemic disease has been key to lowering deathrate and raising life expectancy around the world, but has also engendered an kindle array of social and economic developments. For instance, the unequivocal success of vaccines against globally prolific viruses has undermined the economic motive for further production for vaccines for diseases more prevalent in the developing world. Because citizens in poorer nations cannot come close to affording the pric e of a vaccine in developed nations, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies lack the financial bonus to expand their markets. Solutions to lack of economic incentives include academic research and government incentives for vaccine development. Mass vaccination against the worlds historically endemic viruses has altered social attitudes in many ways. For instance, during the Middle Ages life expectancy was short delinquent to the rampant disease and epidemics death was accepted as a incumbent part of life, and often as an act of God (Dumond). The drastic drop in mortality due to diseases such as smallpox in the late 19th and 20th centuries raised the life expectancy of the fair(a) human and replaced the cultural acceptance of death with a cultural taste perception of life. In other words, living longer and delaying death is now a universal goal because disease has dramatically improved the prospect of living up to biological potential. Thus, the success of vaccines has desti nationd a social ignorance of the insecurity of viruses because deaths due to disease are so much rarer than in preliminary historical eras. The last of the three medical innovations, antibiotics, has been used since valet have experimented with chemicals and substances from plants to discover remedies for diseases. Disinfection typically involved use of either plants believed to have heal properties or chemicals known to inhibit or kill organisms. Arsenic was one such remedy, and its broad toxicity meant that patients would also suffer serious berth effects. Thus, the husking of substances with high specificity and few side effects in humans was one of the great historical developments in modern medicine. The first discovery in modern antibiotics was of penicillin in 1928 by Alexander Fleming due to a coincidence now famous in science a Staphyloccocus sample mistakenly left in the open had been growth-inhibited by a genus Penicillium mold. However, a German scientist named Ge rhard Domagk was the first to develop a commercial antibiotic called Prontosil with broad action against confirming cocci. Mass production of antibiotics was simple and relied on agitation in large containers of growth medium for the target organism to produce the secondary metabolite. redbrick development of partially synthetic or entirely synthetic antibiotics involves either chemical modification of metabolites after fermentation or synthesis from a naturally occurring skeleton. Unfortunately, the misuse of antibiotics is leading to increase prevalence of resistant strains of bacteria around the world. Incorrect diagnosis, unseasonable administration, improper disposal, and overuse in livestock often lead to antibiotic protection because bacteria can perform flat gene transfer through plasmid exchange. Thus, foeman genes can rapidly proliferate in a population of bacteria once one has genetically mutated and become immune to a particular antibiotic. For example, if a patien t using a irrefutable antibiotic stops taking it before the infection is completely eradicated, horizontal gene transfer will allow the few bacteria who have developed resistance throughout the duration of the infection to pass on the resistance gene and prolong the infection. One of the most alarming cases of resistance is that of Staphylococcus aureus, or the staph infection the bacterium has shown historically to be extremely adaptable. For example, 40% of patients with staph infections were resistant to administration of penicillin by 1950, less than 10 years after the antibiotic was introduced (Chambers 178). Staphyloccocus aureus is now also resistant to a variety of other antibiotics such as tetracycline and methicillin. Although this trouble has traditionally been isolated to hospitals, Community-acquired MRSA is now expanding in urban communities, and is responsible for several fatal conditions such as necrotizing fasciitis, or flesh eating disease. The economic benefits of antibiotics, which are similar to vaccines because it deals with pathogens through a direct biological pathway, are complicated by the rise of bacterial resistance. However, this has also provided economic gallery to invest in development of synthetic antibiotics as demand for alternatives rises. much specifically, the threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria like MRSA has spurred the development of oxazolidones, a newer class of antibiotics against Gram-positive bacteria. The first generation of this class of antibiotics is Linezolid, which disrupts the protein synthesis of Gram-positive bacteria its chemical mechanism for disruption occurs at a much earlier step than most other protein inhibitor antibiotics (Brickner 175). Linezolid is currently utilized as a last retrogress against MRSA and resistance has been low ever since its introduction in 1999 (Jones, Ross Castanheira, and Mendes 424). It is likely that research into synthetic drugs, the newest development in the anti biotic industry, will continue as long as antibiotic resistance persists. The widespread use of antibiotics in medicines, soaps, and household cleaning supplies has created the social perception of a sterile domestic environment for human activities. This perception is partially justified in that fifty-fifty use in daily routines and sicknesses has dramatically reduced illness and engendered a social paradigm shift away from the concept of death comparable to(predicate) to that of vaccination. In fact, use of antibiotics may have brought about a self-complacency towards bacterial threats to the human body because its use is ingrained in human hygienic habits. However, the recent revelation of superbugs like MRSA has also brought about a social awareness of antibiotic resistance, and this may result in other shift towards understanding how to handle antibiotics responsibly. In sum, sanitation, vaccination, and antibiotic implementation has drastically reduced the prevalence of cl assic diseases in modern society. Previous scourges of humanity such as smallpox, cholera, and the black plague that ravaged human life are now essentially historical footnotes in the chronology of human medical achievements. Medical advances have brought about generally positive economic and social changes through reduction of health care through prevention, and a culture less concerned with death on a daily basis. However, these advances have not been distributed equally among all peoples of the world many citizens of developing countries without effective sanitation, medical supplies, and access to vaccines of antibiotics continue to be at the mercy of the aforementioned scourges of humanity.ReferencesBrickner, SJ (1996). Oxazolidinone antibacterial agents. Current Pharmaceutical Design 2 (2) 17594. .Chambers, HF (2001). The changing epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus. Emerg Infect Dis 7 (2) 17882. .Chlorination of Drinking Water. Kitsap Public Utility District. 005 2004. 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