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GCSE History > Modern Medicine > Flashcards

Modern Medicine Flashcards

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1
Q

How did Alexander Flemming discover penecillin?

A

1928

  • mould (fungi) had grown on one of his petri dishes had killed the bacteria in the dish
  • a spore from this mould grown in a room below him had floated into his lab and killed the germs
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2
Q

Why didn’t many people hear of his work?

A
  • he didn’t inject penicillin into animals to prove it
  • he published his findings in articles but no one would fund further research
  • he initially thought it was just an antiseptic
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3
Q

Who began to research penicillin further?

A

1930s

-Howard Florey and Ernst Chain at Oxford uni

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4
Q

What factors helped in the mass development of penicillin?

A

World War II: huge quantities were needed to treat soldiers with infected wounds

Government funding: 1941
Florey met with the US Government who agreed to pay several huge chemical companies to make gallons of it

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5
Q

What short term impact did penicillin?

A
  • by 1945 250,000 soldiers were treated
  • around 15% of British and US soldiers would’ve died without penicillin
  • after the war it helped to treat illnesses like pneumonia and tonsillitis
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6
Q

What other antibiotics followed?

A
  • streptomycin 1944 (treated TB)
  • tetracycline 1953 (skin infection)
  • IVF treatment 1978
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7
Q

What has been the long term impact of the discovery of penicillin?

A
  • led to new antibiotics being discovered
  • huge Government sponsored programmes
  • pharmaceutical industry had more finance to fund research
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8
Q

What negative impact did large pharmaceutical companies have?

A
  • drug companies had sometimes taken short cuts and not tested drugs properly
    e. g thalidomide (led to babies being born with deformities)
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9
Q

Why are more antibiotic-resistant bacteria increasing?

Give example of one?

A
  • overuse (doctors prescribe them for minor illnesses
  • effectiveness (bacteria evolve)
  • patients pick up superbugs in hospitals

MRSA

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10
Q

How did WWI impact surgery?

A
  • mobile x-rays units were used
  • first blood banks set up in 1915
  • blood transfusion (by 1917 blood was being stockpiled and stored up to 28 days)
  • splints increase survival rate of a broken leg from 20% to 80%
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11
Q

How has war hindered medical progress?

A
  • doctors are taken away from normal duties to treat war casualties
  • medical research stopped
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12
Q

How did surgery progress after WWII?

A
  • radiation therapy to target cancer
  • 1952 first kidney transplant
  • 1961 first heart pacemaker
  • 1967 Dr Barnard undertook the first heart transplant operation (patient lived for 18 days)
  • keyhole surgery (operations through small cuts and using fibre optic cameras)
  • laser surgery (1987)
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13
Q

Was the Govt worried about the health of the nation?

A
  • 40% of soldiers who had signed up for the Boer War had been unfit to enlist
  • Govt worried that this evidence of poverty would harm the economy and strength of nation
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14
Q

What dod Charles Booth discover?

A
  • published “Life and Labour of the people” in 1889
  • it found 35% of London lived in abject poverty
  • began to change people’s attitudes towards the poor
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15
Q

What did Seebohm Rowntree find?

A
  • study “Poverty, A study in Town Life” in 1889
  • showed that nearly 1/2 the working class people in York lived in poverty
  • he coined the term “poverty line”
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16
Q

Which political party passed reformed to help the poor?

A

The Liberal Party

17
Q

Why did this political party pass reforms?

A
  • they were worried about the strength and power of the country
  • some politicians like DAVID LLOYD GEORGE believed in direct action from the Govt and they were worried about the appeal of the labour party
18
Q

What were the limitations of these reforms?

A
  • poor families couldn’t afford to pay for medical treatment
  • pensions were limited to those who had worked all their lives
  • many Conservatives objected to pay for these reforms
19
Q

What reforms were passed to help children?

A

1906: Free School Meals (by 1914 over 158,000 children were having free school meals everyday)
1907: Education Act
1908: Children and Young Person’s Act (protected children from neglect)

20
Q

What report was introduced during WWII?

What did it state?

A

The Beveridge Act 1942
-it set out proposals for welfare state and the need to eliminate the five “Giant Evils” of :
Want, Disease,Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness
-Government should help people “from the cradle to the grave”
-people were shocked at the health of some of the evacuated children

21
Q

Which political party did introduce a welfare state in Britain?

A

Labour (Clement Attlee was PM)

22
Q

What was the NHS?

A

1948: brought together hospitals,doctors, nurses,opticians,pharmacists and dentists under one umbrella organisation
- healthcare was free at the point of delivery
- Aneurin Bevan was in charge of overseeing the NHS

23
Q

Who opposed the NHS?

A
  • many doctors and Winston Churchill who said it was a “curse on the country”
  • doctors were afraid they would loose money
  • government realised they could not pay for all of it
  • 90% of doctors enrolled into the NHS but only 10% of doctors were in favour of the NHS
24
Q

What are the main health problems that affect people today?

A
  • cancer
  • heart disease
  • dementia
  • diabetes (linked diseases)
25
Q

Why are people more likely to die of these diseases?

A
  • unhealthy lifestyle (diet/exercise)
  • people living longer
  • obesity
26
Q

How could the NHS solve these problems?

A

Targeting prevention rather than cure

For example educating people on smoking and exercise

27
Q

What are the pressures facing the NHS today?

A
  • cost (technology becoming more advanced,operations and treatment become more expensive)
  • not completely free now (prescriptions,dental treatment and dentistry have to be paid for)
  • drug companies sell drugs too expensively and the NHS can’t afford them leading to increasing prices
28
Q

How was it proved that penicillin killed infection?

A
  • they tested it on 8 mice in 1940 and on humans in 1941

- when a patient was injected with penicillin the infection cleared up but if the penicillin ran out, they died

29
Q

what did Harold Gilles do?

A

1917 - persuaded the army to get a special hospital for facial repairs
- over 5,000 service men were treated

30
Q

what was the casualty clearing system (ccs)?

A

from 1915

  • separated the injured into three categories in order to prioritise attention
  • decreased the number of soldiers going to hospital
  • helped decrease the amount of strain on resources and doctors during the war
31
Q

improvements in shell shock treatment

A
  • army identified 80,000 men with shell shock and hospitals were set up
  • william rivers developed the “talking cure” which helped many come to terms with their experiences (used sports and craft activities)
32
Q

describe the development around blood transfusions

A

1901 - Karl Landsteiner discovered blood groups
- an anti-coagulant discovered to store blood up to 28 days
1915 - the first blood banks were set up
1921 - the British Red Cross set up the first voluntary blood donor scheme
1938 - British government set up the Army Supply Depot

33
Q

what did Sir Archibald McIndoe do?

A
  • improved Gillies’ techniques for skin grafting
  • his patients set up the “guinea pig club”
  • spent a lot of time to help patients reintegrate into society
34
Q

what reforms were passed to help housing?

A

1909- back-to-back housing was banned, so overcrowding decreased
1930 - huge slum clearance programme

35
Q

what reforms were passed to help the elderly and the sick?

A

1908: Old Age Pensions Act (over 70s received pension provided they had worked all their lives)
1911: National Insurance (sick and unemployment pay if you paid into the scheme)

36
Q

what laws have been passed recently to improve health?

A

2005 - tobacco advertising banned
2007 - smoking was illegal in enclosed places
2015 - smoking was illegal in the car with a children
2018 - sugar tax was introduced adding cost on products including lots of sugar
(Also many campaigns to teach about healthy living and eating which encourage exercise and 5 portions of fruit and vegetables each day)

GCSE History (18 decks)

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