Fighting Diseases - Past And Future Flashcards
How did Semmelweis cut deaths?
By using anitseptics
Ignaz Semmelwies saw that women were dying in huge numbers at….
Childbirth from a disease called puerperal fever.
How did Semmelweis believe that doctors were spreading the disease?
On their unwashed hands. He told doctors they had to wash their hands before entering the ward in an antiseptic solution.
How much did Semmelwies cute the death rate by?
From 12% to 2%
What did the antiseptic do to the bacteria on the doctors hands
It killed it. Semmelwies didn’t know this so he couldn’t prove why his idea worked.
His methods were dropped once he left the hospital allowing the death rates to rise again
What is antibiotic resistance becoming?
More common
Bacteria……antibiotic resistance
Evolve. Overuse of antibiotics have made the problem worse by increasing the likelihood of people being infected by antibiotic strains
Antibiotic resistance is a big problem so drug companies
Are working on developing new antibiotics that are effective against these resistant strains
What is the name of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics
Superbugs - they are becoming more common
If a new strain of bacteria is produced that we’ve not encountered before…….(what would happen)
We will have not encountered this before soon one will be immune to it. This means a new strain of bacteria could spread rapidly in a population of people and could even cause an epidemic.
Viruses can also tend to _____ often
Mutate.
This makes it hard to develop vaccines for them as the changes in their DNA can lead to them having different antigens
