'Medical advancements in World War Two Essay\r'

' gentleman state of struggle II brought devastation and destruction upon the world. On the other hand, it also heart-to-heart doors for pioneering developments that commonly occur during such situations of high adversity. round of the most pregnant advancements took place in the dramaturgy of medicine when the world was embroiled in earth fightfarefare II. As Dr. Ralph Major states, â€Å"An army is a vast laboratory of health check research w present unhealthiness and injuries are seen on a far big scale than in easetime. Many improvements in the sermon of infections cause come from experiences on the battle scope” (Major 52). bleakness in the war leave countless soldiers and civils with spirit threatening injuries and diseases. This devastation and destruction, led to the innovation of the ternion most authorized medicines in history viz. Penicillin, parentage plasm and Sulfanilamide. These tierce innovations in the field of medicine helped save th ousands of soldiers in macrocosm war II and are considered to be the most consequential medical advancements in the war.\r\nâ€Å"Penicillin fought for the soldier as courageously as the soldier fought for his country” (www.lib.niu.edu). Out of the three innovations in medicine during realism War II, penicillin headless was the most all-important(prenominal). Penicillin was invented by Dr. Alexander Fleming in 1928 and was polar in saving lives of soldiers on D-Day where stockpiles of penicillin were ga in that locationd in depots of England and were on hand in time for the assort invasion of Ger legion(predicate) (Rowland 32) . Operation Overload was the pivotal focalise of worldly concern War II because that was when the Allies took the foul-smelling and attacked the German stronghold of Normandy Beach. It was estimated that 3000 lives were saved on that daylight with the use of Penicillin and by the time the war finish that estimate turned out to be over tw o million (www.historylearningsite.co.uk).\r\nThese figures cl beforehand(predicate) show how utilitarian penicillin was during the period of the war. Penicillin however was initiatory seen in carry out in the Battle of Britain where air raids by the Luftwaffe left many a(prenominal) civilians and soldiers acheed and the doctors requisite more sound instructions to treat burns (www.lib.niu.edu). Penicillin was needed in large numbers as it was the only way Britain could save their soldiers and civilians. Penicillin was also the first broad spectrum antibiotic ever created. It was first broad spectrum antibiotic because it aged(a) various diseases such as: â€Å"hemolytic, streptococcus, gonorrhea, syphilis and it was a wonderful antibiotic for wounds and burns” (www.historystudycenter.com).\r\nAll these diseases could be cured with the use of penicillin and displays how penicillin outnumbered any other medical advancement during World War II in the number of diseases it cured. Soldiers also felt more confident(p) having penicillin in their pockets as they knew that no disease could imply them as long as they had penicillin. This passionate stay could be observed through posters from World War II saying â€Å" give thanks to Penicillin…He provide Come Home!!” which was used as propaganda in an attempt to diminish the fear of going to war on the home front (www.mcatmaster.com). Penicillin had make civilians to cling involved in the war effort and was right called the war’s ‘wonder drug’ (www.abc.net/au). Penicillin had motivated the medical industry to expand and an accidental breakthrough more than sixty years ago in the laboratory of Alexander Fleming helped save countless lives during World War II.\r\nBlood germ plasm was also an important medical advancement during World War II as when war was raged in Europe, origin was needed for the wounded troops and plasma was used to rapture beginning to the w ounded soldiers. It was invented by Dr. Charles Drew in 1938; he discovered it by separating the plasma from the in all blood and so refrigerating them separately (home.att.net/steinert.htm). They could then be combined up to a hebdomad later for a blood transfusion (www.history.amedd/army). Blood plasma could replace whole blood and this uncovering played a major role in World War II where many countries undergo extreme casualties with a lot of bleeding, resulting in the Brobdingnagian losses of blood. Plasma was used to transfer blood as it served to intimidate satisfactory blood imperativeness and supply critical proteins and globulins (antibodies) to the wounded soldiers (www.usaaf.net/wwii). There were many uses of Plasma on the battlefield and on the whole, it helped keep a proper balance in the soundbox which makes it one of the best innovations in medical history.\r\nThe insistency demand for blood on the battlefields led to Britain organizing the outside(a) Transf usion Association in 1940 which collected blood ( battalion donated blood) and turned it into blood plasma. This program collected, processed and transported 14,500 units of plasma to the allied armies and it was all through within atomic number 23-spot months (home.att.net/wwii.htm). Dr. Drew was an important member of the group and his scientific research helped revolutionize blood plasma transfusion so that blood plasma could readily be given to wounded soldiers on the battlefield, which dramatically ameliorate opportunities to save lives. Blood plasma could also be dried which made it really easy to transport, pack, retention and the soldiers could also carry it around in their pockets (www.history.amedd/army).\r\nAs mentioned in the ‘United States office of war’ newsreel â€Å"Soldiers in Normandy got the best medical care science could tornado and plasma cheated death in cases of many soldiers” (www.concise.britannica.com). Soldiers standard the most modern medical treatments on D-day in Normandy beach and blood transfusion of soldiers was sometimes done just behind the fighting army lines. Planes carried nigh a ton of Plasma on that day to the beach which helped save approximately 900 soldiers (www.concise.britannica.com). All these miracles had been performed by blood plasma during WWII which offered the victims of war a glow of hope and saved massive amounts of people at Normandy Beach, truly making it a panacea that change several aspects of life.\r\nâ€Å"The Nazis discovered it. The allies won the war with it…This incredible discovery was Sulpha” (www.asm.org). Sulpha drugs or Sulfanilamide greatly affected the mortality rates during World War II, especially for the Allies and helped save thousands of soldiers and many important people. One of them was Winston Churchill who was the British premier in 1943. He had caught a grim disease called promise pneumonia and was on the verge of death. His physician had to give him M + B 693 sulfonamidenamide to cure him and â€Å"there is little doubt that the novel Sulfa drug defeated the pneumonia and in all likelihood saved his life” (www.asm.org). His recovery was very important to the Allies as that was the time they were making plans for D-Day in which Britain had a major role. Approximately 140,000 allied soldiers carried a package of Sulfa powder (Sulfanilamide) on D-Day in their medical pouches and they were also taught how to immediately sprinkle sulpha powder on any open wound to prevent infection (elibrary.bigchalk.com). This evidence illustrates how important sulfanilamide was to every soldier in the war and all the countries were cursorily to realize its importance.\r\nAt an outbreak of Meningitis in the cut Foreign Legion in Nigeria, while sulfanilamide was available, there was an eleven percent mortality rate. and later on the supply was exhausted, mortality climbed up to seventy five percent (Margotta 58). The mor tality rates in World War II would have been much high if it were not for sulfanilamide and this incident is a clear depicting of what would have happened. In the United States in the early thirty’s, about hundred thousand people died annually of pneumonia, blood poisoning and cerebrospinal meningitis. bang had afflicted some twelve million Americans which became a serious issue for the United States government (www.pubs.acs/org).\r\nThese numbers however, decreased dramatically by the early 1940’s and much of the credit goes to Gerhard Domagk and his team of chemists who developed the very first sulfa drugs that could treat the diseases (mentioned earlier) and also heart-to-heart up the door to modern medicines (www.pubs.acs/org). Sulfa drugs preceded penicillin by almost ten years as they first developed in 1932, so â€Å"they carried the main curative burden in both military and civilian medicine during the war” (elibrary.bigchalk.com). They also proved extraordinarily fruitful as starting points for new drugs or classes of drugs, both for bacterial infections and for a number of important non-infectious diseases. The initial breakthrough in the 1930’s of sulfa drugs research is the stem today in the incumbent search for the effective treatments for AIDS making it a truly revolutionary antibiotic.\r\nSo, therefore Penicillin, Blood Plasma and Sulfanilamide were considered the most important medical innovations during World War II because of the tremendous impact they had in the war and the countless number of lives they saved. All of the medical advancements in World War Two went on to advance society after the war had ended. Whether such developments would have occurred at the same pace in peace time will never be known. But the one very interesting thing here is that, medical advancements take place at such a rapid pace mainly because of a major war and the problem of the great number of casualties due to a major war is figure out by medicine. Therefore, war and medicine are fatal partners and are very closely related unless are not the same thing, as war causes the problems and medicine solves them.\r\nCitations/ ReferencesBooksMargotta, Roberto. History of medicinal drug. Britain: Hamlyn, 1996.\r\nMajor, Ralph Hermon. Fatal Partners: War and disease. 3rd. capital of the United Kingdom: Doran\r\n&Company, 1941.\r\nRowland, John. The Penicillin Man: The story of Alexander Fleming. EightImpression. capital of the United Kingdom: Lutherworth Press, 1969.\r\nWebsitesDixon, Bernard. â€Å"Sulfa’s True Signicance.” 11 Nov 2006. 26 May 2007.\r\nKiefer, David. â€Å"Miracle Medicines.” Today’s Chemist at Work. AmericanChemical Society. 26 May 2007.\r\nKendrick, Douglas. â€Å"Plasma equipment and Packaging.” Medical division U.SArmy. 06 June 2006. 26 May 2007.\r\nMailer, John. â€Å"Penicillin: Medicine’s Wartime.” Illinois Periodicals Online atNort hern Illinois University. Illinois Periodicals Online. 26 May 2007.\r\nNanney, James. â€Å"Aeromedical Evacuation.” The U.S army Air thrust In WWII.\r\n26 May 2007.\r\nSteinert, David. â€Å"The History of WWII medicine.” World War II: Combat Medic.\r\n04 May 2002. 26 May 2007.\r\nTorok, Dr. Simon. â€Å"Maker of the Miracle Mould.” Howard Florey: The story.\r\n26 May 2007.\r\nTrueman, Chris. â€Å"Medicine and World War Two.” WWII. 26 May 2007.\r\nDatabasesRoff, Sue. â€Å"The engine room of healing: A century of Medicne.” History StudyCenter. 2003. Helicon. 26 May 2007″Sulfa Drug.” eLibrary. 12 Jan 2005. Encyclopedia Britannica. 26 May 2007.\r\nPrimary SourcesWorld War II Poster. â€Å"Thanks to Penicillin… He Will Come\r\nHome!!”U.S. component of War Information newsreel. â€Å"Penicillin and plasma save lives.”Normandy, June-July 1944. case Archives, Washington, D.C.\r\n'