Want to critique something?

[kami333]

Many advances have been made in the field of medicine in the past one hundred years. Doctors and health officials now have a vast wealth of knowledge and tools at their disposal for treating sick patients and enacting policies to ensure that diseases do not spread. The discovery of antibiotics, particularly penicillin in 1929, turned many life-threatening diseases into minor medical inconveniences, easily cured by a visit to the doctor?s office. Before the discovery, people lived under the constant threat of death from contagious epidemic diseases such as tuberculosis and the plague. In particular, Europe during the 14th to 18th centuries saw up to thirty percent of its population killed by recurring waves of epidemic diseases. The plague or Black Death, caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, was one of the most widely feared diseases at the time due to its widespread high rate of infection and lethality. When physicians were unsuccessful in explaining or curing the disease, the governments, worried that if left uncontrolled it could potentially decimate the population, enacted policies and ordinances intended to inhibit the further spread of the infection. From a modern medical viewpoint the rational behind most of these preventative measures was faulty and thus the majority were ineffective in containing the plague infection, however, a portion of these measures were effective in preventing the further spread of the disease due to coincidence.