Fighting Disease - Past and Future

Question 1

Semmelweis cut deaths by using…

Answer 1

Antiseptics

Question 2

Which Semmelweis was working in Vienna General Hospital, in the 1840s, he saw that [ ] were dying in huge numbers after [ ] from a disease called [ ].

Answer 2

Women
Childbirth
Puerperal fever

Question 3

What did Semmelweis believe was the cause of the disease spreading? Why did he do? What was the effect?

Answer 3

He thought doctors were spreading the disease on their unwashed hands. By telling doctors entering his ward to wash their hands in an antiseptic solution, he cut the death rate from 12% to 2%`

Question 4

What did the antiseptic solution, the doctors has to wash their hands in do?

Answer 4

Killed bacteria on their hands, though Semmelweis didn’t know this.

Question 5

Why could Semmelweis not prove his work? Therefore…

Answer 5

The existence of bacteria and their part in causing disease hadn’t been discovered.
His methods were dropped in the hospital allowing the death rate to increase again.

Question 6

We can deal with bacterial infections easily with [ ]. The death rate of from [ ] bacterial diseases has [ ] dramatically.

Answer 6

antibiotics
Infectious
Fallen

Question 7

But bacteria evolve [ ] eg, [ ] bacteria are already resistant to certain antibiotics.

Answer 7

Antibiotic resistant

MRSA

Question 8

What has made the problem of Antibiotic resistant bacteria worse? Therefore…

Answer 8

Overuse of antibiotics - increasing the likelihood of people being infected by Antibiotic resistant strains

Question 9

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are becoming [ ] common

Answer 9

More

Question 10

How is bacteria evolving? What is the issue with this?

Answer 10

1) Bacteria can mutate to produce new strains
2) A new strain could be Antibiotic resistant, so current treatments would no longer clear an infection
3) OR a new strain could be one we’ve not encountered before, so no-one would be immune to it.
4) This new strain could spread rapidly - could cause an epidemic.

Question 11

How is viruses evolving? What is the issue with this?

Answer 11

1) Mutate often. Harder to develop vaccines against them because the changes in their DNA = different antigens
2) If a virus evolved that was deadly and very infectious = huge problem
3) Precautions would be put in place (isolation) and antiviral drugs and vaccines would be produced (takes time to mass produce)
4) A flu pandemic (whole world) could kill billions of people