Long ago medicine wasn’t as good as it is now. They used herbs, plants and magic to try to cure people. Until the 1900’s, people could call themselves a doctor with any training. Without that knowledge, they often hurt or killed their patients. Today people must go to school and be licensed to work in healthcare.
I learned many things reading this book. In the early 1300’s, there was a disease called, “bubonic plague or black death.” It killed one out of every three Europeans. In London alone it killed 17,000 people.
From the 1300’s to the 1600’s, the Europeans first came to the Americas. They also brought deadly diseases too. Smallpox and measles killed off much of the Native American population, as they had never been exposed to these diseases.
Farm animals have given us infectious diseases too. Cholera and tuberculosis were passed from the animals to humans. Pigs and geese can give us the flu. Sheep can give us anthrax. Bulls can also give us tuberculosis and smallpox.
In 1988, 350,000 children were struck with Polio. Polio is a viral disease that causes paralysis and muscle wasting. Vaccinations against polio have caused the disease to be nearly eliminated. I know I have been vaccinated against Polio and many other things too.
In the early days of medicine, we didn’t have good medicines or ways to treat disease. We now know the importance of research to help us know what works and what doesn’t work. Vaccinations have been shown to help eliminate diseases. If we keep learning more about diseases and learn how to treat them, we can save many lives. Perhaps in the future we can eliminate rabies, all the types of cancer, and heart disease.
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