Download Human Illnesses Eliminated or Controlled through Medical Research

Activity 4: Human Illnesses Eliminated or Controlled through Medical Research
OBJECTIVES:
At the completion of this exercise, the students will be able to:
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List some of the diseases eliminated or controlled through medical research.
State that some of this progress was achieved in recent times; that individuals who had the illness are
still around to tell their story.
Describe some of the ways in which our society today can utilize techniques developed to control the
spread of these illnesses (i.e., vaccines, chest x-rays, blood tests to determine genetic predisposition
or disease detection).
TOPICS:
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Polio
Rheumatic Fever
Congenital Heart Defects
Cleft Palate
Diphtheria
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
Malaria
Arthritis
Cataracts
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High blood pressure
Heart attacks
Stroke
Schistosomiasis
Epilepsy
Atherosclerosis
Diabetes
Kidney failure
River Blindness
Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C
EXERCISE: The student, in a written or oral report, should:
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Briefly describe the disease state.
Identify the researcher (s) who helped to bring the disease under control.
Determine how widespread the outbreak of the illness was. (If regionalized, where was the largest
occurrence?)
State the cause and how it was discovered.
Name the animal model (s) used to study the disease state in humans.
Describe the status of the disease now. (Does it still exist? How widespread is it? Where is it? How is it
controlled today (vaccines, etc.)?)