1900+-+2000+-+20th+Century+-+Insulin+Development

__10 Facts:__
1. In 1901, the average life expectancy in the United Kingdom was 47 years. 2. In 1922, the Canadian physiologists Fred Banting and Charles Best announced to the world that they had discovered Insulin and successfully used it to treat diabetes in a human patient. 3. In 1928, Oskar Wintersteiner proved that insulin was a protein. 4. Insulin allows the cells of the body to take in sugar from a digested meal. 5. In 1955 the Nobel Prize-winner Frederick Sanger found the amino acid sequence of human insulin. 6. Chemical modifications tailor the insulin to mimic the human hormone and also give it properties that make it convenient to administer. 7. More long-acting insulins have been developed so that the need to inject so often has been reduced. 8. Currently there are 1.4 million people in the UK who successfully control their diabetes by using injections of insulin and much of it is made by genetically-engineered bacteria. 9. News of Banting and Best's success spread quickly and soon their laboratory was unable to meet the demand for the new wonder drug. 10. 1922, fourteen-year-old Leonard Thompson was successfully treated in Toronto Hospital with the extract that they called insulin.

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__The impact of medicine on society of the time__
Preventing even moderate hyperglycemia with insulin during intensive care protected the central and peripheral nervous systems, with clinical consequences such as shortening of intensive care dependency and possibly better long-term rehabilitation.

__**The role science played in society at the time**__
New medicines, improved air quality and better public hygiene has contributed to this 64% increase in the life-expectancy. The twentieth century has seen some major advances in healthcare. These have included the development of:

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__**Major medical advancements during the time**__
The discovery and development of antibiotics by Fleming, Florey and Chain and Vaccinations. Although first described by Edward Jenner in the 18th century, mass vaccination programs were undertaken to prevent deaths from diseases such as yellow fever, poliomyelitis, measles, mumps and rubella. In 1980 the World Health Organisation announced that the deadly smallpox virus had been completely eradicated. Advances in bio engineering, computing power, materials technology and many other areas of science have led to the development of many medical devices. During heart surgery, an artificial heart and lung machine keep the patient alive. Kidney damage can quickly kill but renal dialysis can keep patients alive even though their kidneys have failed. Sadly, it is not all good news for medicine in the 20th Century. Many diseases can be controlled and treated but this takes money. In places such as Africa, South America and Asia, the levels of healthcare are below those found in the more well off Western nations. Diseases like HIV/AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, pneumonia and malaria remain major killers in these regions. The challenge of medicine in the 21st Century is to make high quality healthcare available to all.