Health and the people- Modern medicine

Question 1

When and who developed penecillin?

Answer 1

Alexander Flemming made initial discovery
Purified by Florey and Chain for mass production in the US during WW2

Question 2

How much penecillin was being produced by the end of WW2?

Answer 2

250,000 treatments a month

Question 3

What percentage of soldiers would have died if they hadn’t been given penecillin?

Answer 3

12-15%

Question 4

What are some key dates in modern medicine?

Answer 4

[1948] - TB vaccine in the UK
[1958] - First pacemaker fitted (in Sweden)
[1968] - First heart transplant in the UK
[1978] - First baby born from IVF
[1980] - Smallpox officially declared eradicated
[2003] - Human Genome project complete
[2008]- First full face transplant

Question 5

Why have drugs and treatments developed greatly in the late 20th century?

Answer 5

• Two world wars → lots of money spent on research
• Changing attitudes in government
• Improvements in technology such as electron microscopes or MRI scanners (early 1970s)
• Communication has improved due to television and internet

Question 6

What are some examples of alternative medicines?

Answer 6

• Aromatherapy
• Hypnotherapy
• Acupuncture
• Homeopathy

Question 7

Why might the British population be more interested in alternative therapies?

Answer 7

Lack of trust in the NHS, for example Dr Harold Shipman who murdered his patients, or the infected blood scandal.

Question 8

What did the first world war do to modern medicine?

Answer 8

• Blood transfusions after finding out about blood groups (Karl Landsteiner) [1914] Albert Hustin discovered glucose and sodium citrate stopped blood clotting in contact with air
• X-rays were discovered in 1895 and could be used to remove bullets or shrapnel from soldiers without cutting them open
• Increased understanding of shellshock as war went on, William Rivers started talk therapy
• Developments in plastic surgery led by Harrod Gillies (treated over 5000 soldiers)

Question 9

How many men with shellshock were shot for desertion at the start of WW2?

Answer 9

306 (over 300)

Question 10

Who improved plastic surgery treatments in WW1 and how many men did they treat?

Answer 10

Harrod Gillies treated over 5000 men by 1921

Question 11

How many people were injured during WW1?

Answer 11

20 million

Question 12

Who discovered blood groups?

Answer 12

Karl Landsteiner

Question 13

Who discovered a way to stop blood from clotting and when?

Answer 13

1914, Albert Hustin with a glucose and sodium citrate solution that prevented blood from clotting with the air

Question 14

When was the first open heart surgery performed?

Answer 14

1950

Question 15

What were outcomes of WW2?

Answer 15

• NHS created as a promise of the Labour government
• 999 acting as an emergency healthservice from 1937
• More aid to help people in poverty → evacuation of children from cities had shown people how malnourished and sick many of the children were
• recognition to keep Britain’s people fit and healthy incase of another war → immunisation programmes

Question 16

What proportion of men who signed up for the Boer war were unfit to serve?

Answer 16

40%

Question 17

Who did a study of people’s living conditions in the 1900s?

Answer 17

Rowntree report in York [1901] showed that 28% of people had lived below the poverty line at some point

Question 18

Example of a social reform in the early 20th century?

Answer 18

School Meals Act [1906]
School clinics set up, free for children

Question 19

When was the NHS founded

Answer 19

1948

Question 20

Who wrote a report about the state of Britain at the end of WW2?

Answer 20

Sir William Beveridge

Question 21

What was outlined in the Beveridge report?

Answer 21

that everyone deserved to live out of poverty with free healthcare

Question 22

How many copies of the Beveridge report were bought within the first month of its publication

Answer 22

100,000