Modern

• most people can read and write so ideas spread quickly and the government advertised public health
• the government abandoned their laissez faire attitude and started providing free medicine and treatments
• there were two world wars which means the government spent lots of money on researching and doctors to find new ways to treat casualties
• scientists were able to build on Pasteur and koch's ideas
• there was the development of x-ray photography and the electron microscope which lead to the discovery about DNA
• germs are a proven cause
• life expectancy nearly doubled
• 1900- present
• the development of vaccinations mean that doctors discovered antibodies and started looking for chemicals which would do the same without harming the body which they called magic bullets
• Koch used dyes to stain microbes and he discovered some of them killed it which is what started scientists looking for magic bullets
• salvarsan 606 was the first magic bullet found by Paul Ehrlich which destroyed the syphilis bacteria
• Ehrlich tested over 600 arsenic compounds (a mixture of two or more elements) to try and find a syphilis cure
• Salvarsan 606 could kill the syphilis microbe and also the patient so it was difficult to use
• Prontosil was a bright red dye that killed bacterial infections in mice and was discovered by Gerhard Domagk
• prontosil was discovered when Domagk's daughter pricked her finger on an infected needle and for septicaemia and gave her prontosil and it cured her
• sulphonamides was discovered to be the active ingredient in prontosil which was discovered by the electron microscope
• it was discovered sulphonamides stopped bacteria multiplying so the immune system can kill it and these were called bacteriostatic antibiotics
• m&b 693 was another bacteriostatic antibiotic that was discovered and treated pneumonia and scarlet fever
• Alexander Fleming was investigating lysozymes and left out a pile of dirty petri dishes which grew mould (he discovered it to be penicillin) but no bacteria
• Fleming tried to purify the penicillin mould but didn't know how to so he wrote articles and had tested it on infections and recognised it could kill microbes but he never developed it
• Florey and Chain found a way to purify penicillin using freeze drying technology and by 1940 they had successfully done it and started experimenting with it
• penicillin was tested for the first time on a policeman who had got septicaemia from a scratch of a bush and he began to get better but once they ran out he died
• Dorothy Hodgkin mapped the structure of penicillin so that synthetic versions could be made
• the 1911 national insurance act provided for workers who fell ill by providing sick pay and giving access to a doctor however this only applies to people who work
• in 1907 a medical officer of health was appointed and he was notified when babies were born and visited each mother and nurses carried out medical checks on children in school
• by 1928 all men and women over 21 had the right to vote
• the NHS (national health service) was set up in July 1948 and was paid for by tax
• the NHS was revolutionary as it provided healthcare for the entire population some of which had never seen a doctor before
• the creation of the NHS increased the life expectancy and reduced the number of women who died from childbirth
• In the 1960s plans were made to improve the NHS by ensuring hospitals were evenly spread around he country and they modernised the hospitals that were mainly built in the 19th century
• government funding meant treatments, specialised staff and technology could be improved and become more popular
• In hospitals, people were protected from getting new illnesses as some bacteria have started to develop immunity to antibiotics
• the NHS meant that dentists, vaccinations, ambulances, doctors, hospitals, maternity welfare, hospitals and medicines are now free to everyone
• scientists begin to understand how lifestyle choices such as smoking have an impact on the body and diseases
• since the mid 1950s, the cause of death has shifted from infections to chronic conditions such as heart disease and cancers
• smoking became popular in the 1920s and by the 1950s this was linked to being a cause of lung cancer, tooth decay, throat cancer, heart disease and other diseases
• there were studies showing that children who are exposed to smoke second hand are more likely to develop asthma
• It was found that diet has an impact of disease too and that a healthy diet consists of lots of fruit and vegetables and too much sugar can lead to type 2 diabetes which is an incurable disease
• it was discovered that eating too much fat can lead to heart disease
• It found that alcohol could lead to liver disease and kidney problems