medicine

• In 1928 Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin by chance after leaving petri dishes out whilst on holiday.
• Ernst Florey and Howard Chain read Alexander Fleming's article about penicillin and asked the British government for funding but were only given £25.
• They tested penicillin on policeman Albert Alexander who had an eye infection and it worked until they ran out of penicillin.
• When America joined WW2 they gave $80 million to develop and mass produce penicillin.
• By the time of the D-Day landings there was enough penicillin to treat the casualties.
• Other antibiotics followed including streptomycin, tetracycline, mitomycin.
• In recent years there have been antibiotic resistant bacteria due to overuse including MRSA.
• Today there are also a variety of alternative treatments including acupuncture, homeopathy and aromatherapy.
• Vaccines for diphtheria, whooping cough, polio, rubella, MMR and HPV are now available for all.
• X-rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Rontgen but portable machines could help doctors find shrapnel and look for broken bones without cutting people open.
• The Army Leg Splint was designed to put broken bones in traction.
• Infections such as gangrene were common so surgeons cut away the infected flesh and soaked the wound in saline.
• Shell shock was identified during the war after the suffers originally being treated as cowards.
• Karl Landsteiner had discovered blood groups which helped doctors complete blood transfusions.
• In 1914 Albert Hustin discovered that glucose and sodium could stop blood clotting on contact with air meaning it could be bottled.
• By 1921, over 5000 patients had plastic surgery.
• Booth and Rowntree's work highlighted that poverty was an issue in Britain.
• The NHS began in 1948 with a budget of £116 billion.
• During WW1, Albert Hustin and storage of blood were significant developments.
• In his book 'Life and Labour of the People in London', Booth stated that 30% of the population lived in poverty despite working.
• Public Health was a significant issue in 1928 when penicillin was discovered.
• Seebohm Rowntree discovered that 28% of the population were in poverty but also that this could change during their lifetime.
• The Beveridge Report in 1942 stated that people had the right to be free of the 'five giants' that could ruin their lives: disease, want, ignorance, idleness, and squalor.
• By 1900, poverty was still an issue in Britain, highlighted by the Boer War of 1899-1902.
• The National Insurance Act was introduced in 1911.
• The Welfare State was set up by the Labour Party to care for people 'from the cradle to the grave'.
• In the C21st, the government continues to try and improve health, with a smoking ban passed in public places in 2006 and extended to cars in 2015.
• 40% of the men who volunteered for the Boer War were not fit for military service, mostly due to poor diet and poverty-related illnesses.
• The first job centres were established in 1909.
• Booth created a map showing many areas of poverty in London.
• In 1938 advances in storage mean the National Blood Transfusion Service opened.
• Harold Gillies developed plastic surgery to help men who suffered severe facial wounds during WW1 by 1921 he had treated over 5000 servicemen.
• In WW2 his cousin Archibald McIndoe did further work on faces and hands.
• Heart surgery progressed through Dwight Harken who operated on 134 hearts with no fatalities.
• Since the war there have been kidney, heart, lung, liver and facial transplants.
• These transplants became more successful with cyclosporine to stop organ rejection.
• DNA and stem cells are being mapped and used to grow new organs.
• The distribution of poverty across London is being mapped.
• In 1891, Emil von Behring produced an antitoxin from the blood of animals that had just recovered from diphtheria, which could be used to reduce the effect of the disease.
• Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize in 1902 for his discovery on how malaria is transmitted.