´Treatments of diseases and care of the sick completely changed after 1900´

How far do you agree with this statement?

In my opinion, there were significantly big changes in treatments of diseases and care
of the sick after 1900 because of new technology, better government action and new
developed of antibiotics and magic bullets to attack the microbes in the body causing
the disease.

After the influence of the electron microscope allowing a much powerful magnification
that made important improvements in diagnosis. Technology enable doctors to have a
better understanding of a patient´s symptoms than any in previous time. From the
1930s blood test used blood samples to test for an enormous number of conditions
without the need for invasive diagnosis methods, from the 1960s blood sugar
monitoring allowed people who suffered from diabetes to check their blood sugar
regularly to ensure they manage their condition, from the 1890s x-rays helped
diagnose problems like broken bones, from the 1880s blood pressure monitors helped
diagnosed high and low blood pressure, from the from the 1900s endoscopes was able
to see inside the human body investigating digestive symptoms or to assist in
treatment and ECGs used electrical impulses to track heart activity, from the 1940s
ultrasound scans use sound waves to build up a picture of the inside of the body and
finally from the 1970s MRI scans were able to create an internal image of the body and
CT scans were used to diagnose tumors or other growths in the body. This technology
used to make diagnosis were a huge improvement in how to treat of the sick.

In the late 19th century, more microbes responsible for specific diseases were being
discovered which meant that scientists could begin to search for substances to attack
and destroy these microbes. Therefore, in early 20th century magic bullets started with
Paul Ehrlich who tested as many arsenic compounds as he could to find a cure for
syphilis but he didn’t find a cure. In 1909 a scientist named Hata rested all the
compounds and found that compound number 606 cured syphilis. The drug named
Salvarsan 606, was the first magic bullet. In 1932, Gerhard Domagk discovered that
bright red dye called Prontosil killed bacterial infections in mice. Later, scientists at
Pasteur Institute in Paris discovered that Prontosil worked by preventing the bacteria
from multiplying in the body which made it possible for the body´s own immune
system to kill the bacteria. These drugs are called bacteriostatic antibiotics.
Furthermore, scientists began to look for other drugs that worked in the same way so
later in 1938, British scientists developed M&B 693, another bacteriostatic antibiotic. It
was successfully used too treat Winston Churchill for pneumonia during the Second
World War. Also, the first antibiotic was developed, penicillin. It was created by using
microorganisms and was isolated from a mould sample by Alexander Fleming in 1928.
Antibiotics have been a miracle cure for a variety of diseases, however, their long-term
impact has yet to be measured.

After the influence of Florence Nightingale improving the cleanness of hospitals, the
National Health Service was launched in 1948 by the government. Its aim was to
provide medical care for the entire population of Britain and it was paid by National
Insurance contributions. The organization of NHS included hospitals, managed by
hospitals boards, General Practitioners (GPs) and dentists and additional services such
as ambulance service and health visitors. The government aim to provide the same
level of service no matter how rich or poor they were. Hospitals were not much
changed by the launched of the NHS because post war Britain did not have a lot of
money to spend on medical are so the government was now responsible for 1.143
voluntary hospitals and 1.545 city hospitals which was a huge undertaking. Many of
the hospitals were built in the 19th century and desperately needed updating. Similarly,
many GP surgeries were in need of modernization, as well as the standards of the GPs
themselves. With little time or opportunity to keep up-to-date with medical
developments, many GPs were behind the times. The problem made worse by the
NHS, because more and more people began visiting NHS which made waiting times
increased and appointment times decreased. Therefore, access had improved because
of the NHS was available to all but provision had not improved in the short term.
However, during the 1960s, the government implemented plans to ensure that
hospitals were evenly spread across the whole country. In 1966, a GP charter was
introduced encouraging GPs to work in groups. This led to improvements in the
standard of care.

For all these reasons, I believe there were significantly big changes in treatments of
diseases and care of the sick after 1900 because of new technology that led to a better
diagnosis, the launched of National Health Service to provide medical care for the
entire population of Britain, the development of antibiotics and finally the first
chemical curves, magic bullets.