📍Topic 9.2 Technological Advancements and Limitations- Disease

📖 AMSCO p.641 - p.645

Main Idea

Key Timeline

Image Courtesy of Vibhi

Things to Know

Diseases related to Poverty

• Living in poverty often meant unclean housing, working conditions (long hours, factory workers, and child labor were common), and water as well as limited access to healthcare. All of these factors contributed to the increased spread of disease.
• Malaria 🦟
  • Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organization (NGO), treated around 1.7 million cases of malaria every year, which usually affected young African children.
  • In 2019, Algeria and Argentina were announced as malaria-free countries.
• Tuberculosis (TB) 🫁
  • After 1946, there were vaccines created in order to prevent tuberculosis. Treatment would mean getting the vaccine and have a long period of rest.
  • In the early 2000s, there was a rise of tuberculosis cases due to a strain of tuberculosis being resistant to the antibiotics.
  • The World Health Organization (WHO) started a campaign in order to advocate against tuberculosis shortly after.
• Cholera 💧
• Polio 💧
  • Jonas Salk, who was an American researcher, was proud to announce that on April 12, 1995, an injectable vaccine was available and effective for polio.
  • In 1961, Albert Sabin developed a new oral vaccine for polio that had also shown effectiveness against polio.
  • In countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan, it was harder to administer vaccines because of the ongoing wars, and/or people resentful due to not trusting outside help.
  • These two countries still have polio, however, 30 years after the vaccine came out, other countries were declared polio free.

Epidemics

• After World War I ended in 1918, epidemics were on the rise.
• The flu had gotten out of control and men were dying more from the flu than from being in battle. One fifth of the world’s population at the time had died for the same reason, which can be compared to the Bubonic Plague (1347-1351).
• HIV/AIDS 😷
  • First, people usually get Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which then transfers into a more serious matter, called Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS).
  • Both of these slow down the immune system’s response towards an outside threat.
  • Killed 25 million people
  • In the mid-1990s, antiretroviral drugs had been one of the developed ways by researchers to treat HIV/AIDS.
  • These drugs are expensive, and are not accessible by many— except Brazil! Brazil gives out these antiretroviral drugs for free! 💸
• Ebola 🩸
  • Discovered at Congo in 1976
  • West Africa had an Ebola outbreak in 2014, which caused panic throughout the world, however, the WHO took a huge role in responding, and contained the outbreaks.

🤒 Diseases related to Old Age

• Heart Diseases 🫀
  • Christiaan Barnard was the first person in 1967 to successfully carry out a heart transplant.
  • Robert Jarvik led a team to create the first Artificial Heart, allowing one of his patients to wait until they got their real heart for a heart transplant.
  • Other cool mentions would be valve replacements and artery stents that allowed the heart to flow blood throughout the body.
• Alzheimer’s Disease 🧠

Terms to Remember