Disease And Infection Flashcards
Egyptian - Supernatural beliefs?
3000-600bc
Believed pharaohs had special powers, gods on earth,
Imhotep gained god status for his abilities in medicine
Carried charms (scarab beetles)
Prehistoric Medicine?
Means before written records
Mainly supernatural beliefs (evil spirits)
Have been compared to aborigines who use trephining to release evil spirit
Also used magic charms and medicine men
Also had some natural treatments (herbal and broken bones put in clay)
Egyptian - Natural Beliefs?
3000-600bc
Developed writing, records survive (papyrus ebers)
Natural explanation based on Nile
Illness caused by blocked channels
Vomiting and purging to unblock channels.
Greek medicine - supernatural(Asclepion)
600-200bc
They had supernatural explanations as they visited asclepions.
They believed the god Asklepios would visit them with his daughters and a snake to heal them in their sleep.
Greek Medicine- Natural (Hippocrates)
600-200bc
He’s considered the father of modern medicine
He believed in natural causes
Started clinical observation and created the Hippocratic oath
His Theory that an imbalance of the four humours caused illness developed from Aristotle
Started the idea of preventive medicine, having a healthy lifestyle
Roman medicine - Galen
He studied at Alexandria
Developed 4 humours into theory of opposites
Remained the main form treatment throughout the Middle Ages as was acceptable to all religions
Impact of fall of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire collapsed
Western Europe entered regression
Many books and ideas were lost/destroyed
Islamic Medicine - Rhazes & Avicenna
R - found difference between small pox and measles
A - wrote Canon of Medicine (all medical knowledge to date)
Impact of superstition and Christianity on medieval medicine
Return to supernatural beliefs and treatments(prayer and flagellation)
Illness said to be punishment from god
Eg Leprosy and mental illness due to devil.
Natural methods in Middle Ages
Bleeding, wise women
Use of urine charts and interpretation of position of planets to explain illness
Still used theory of opposites and related treatment(blood letting, vomiting)
Wise women had knowledge of herbal treatments, helped those who were ill(poor) and we’re sometimes seen as witches.
Responses to plague
Prayer, flagellation Killed Jews who they thought poisoned the wells Avoided crowds Quarantine introduced first in Italy and then in other places Red crosses on doors Killed stray dogs Buried dead at night Bye laws.
Jenner - vaccinations
Noticed milkmaids with cow pox did not catch smallpox
Created small pox vaccination
Made compulsory in 1852
Pasteur
1860’s - used experiments and swan neck flask to prove germs caused disease and did not spontaneously generate because of disease
1880 - developed chicken cholera vaccine
1881 - anthrax vaccine
Koch
1870's - proved a particular germ causes a particular disease Factors were; War, (with France ~ see Pasteur) Individual genius Technology Government support
Ehrlich - magic bullets
1909 - found first chemical drug(magic bullet) called Salvarsan 606
Later sulphonamide drugs developed to kill microbe causing pneumonia
Penicillin - Fleming & Florey and Chain
1928- Fleming discovered penicillin by chance on Petri dish
1944 - Florey and Chain persuade US government to invest in mass production to help troops dying from infection
Florence Nightingale & nursing
1853-56 - went to Crimean war
Improved condition of hospitals there
Set up first nursing school in London
Made nursing a profession
Mary Seacole
1853-56 Jamaican
Paid her own way to Crimea and worked on front line, tending to soldiers
Came back penniless but soldiers raised money for her
Faced racism as turned down to join nightingales team
Blackwell and Garrett Anderson
B -1847- Qualified as first woman doctor in New York and started School of Medicine for Women in London in 1869
GA - 1861-65 was refused entry to medical school so trained abroad
By 1976 all medical professions were open to women.
Role of the World Health Organistion
Monitors outbreaks of disease around the world and helps promote preventive medicine and brings medical issues to public eye
Problem drugs - Thalidomide
Drug for morning sickness that caused malformation of babies limbs
As a result, much stricter testing of drugs before they are released onto the market.
Alternative medicines and Superbugs
Some are against artificial medicine and prefer herbal remedies, acupuncture etc.
But these can also be harmful if not used in the correct way
Hospital cleanliness linked to superbugs which do not respond to antibiotics
Crock and Watson and Generic Engineering
Discovered DNA and led to growth of organs etc.
Major ethical issues
