Success in Sri Lanka raises hopes that at least 30 other nations could follow suit, marking beginning of the end for disease that kills 400,000 every year
Dozens of countries poised to drive out malaria by 2020 Read more
Initiated by the Indian government, the mission aimed to achieve an “open-defecation free” and resulted in the construction of an estimated 89.9 million toilets between 2014 and 2019.
The WHO launched an intensified plan to eradicate smallpox in 1967. Widespread immunization and surveillance were conducted around the world for several years. The last known natural case was in Somalia in 1977.
Smallpox becomes first infectious human disease to be fully eradicated Read more
Through major advancements in medicine, public health, and poverty alleviation, by 2021 the global average life expectancy was just over 70 years. Less than 15 years later, humanity reaches another critical milestone by achieving 75 years of life expectancy around the world.
Global life expectancy surpasses 40 years for first time ever Read more
The historic program successfully eliminated the disease in North America, Europe, the former Soviet Union, Taiwan, much of the Caribbean, the Balkans, parts of northern Africa, the northern region of Australia, and a large swath of the South Pacific, and dramatically reduced mortality in Sri Lanka and India.
World Health Organization launches unprecedented Global Malaria Eradication Programme Read more
As recently as two centuries ago, around 1 in 2 children died before reaching the end of puberty. Our ancestors were largely powerless against poverty, famine, and disease, and these calamities were especially devastating for children. Since then, child mortality has plummeted across the world. This dramatic decline has resulted from better nutrition, clean water, sanitation, neonatal healthcare, vaccinations, medicines, and reductions in poverty, conflicts, and famine.
Global child mortality rate plummets from a historical average of 48% to 27% in 1950 Read more
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a style of traditional medicine based on more than 2,500 years of Chinese medical practice that includes various forms of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage (tui na), exercise (qigong), and dietary therapy.
Mao Zedong reintroduces Traditional Chinese Medicine into Chinese health care system Read more
Streptomycin is now on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines. The World Health Organization classifies it as critically important for human medicine.
In collaboration with a thoracic surgeon, Gustaf Lindskog, they injected the chemical mustine into a patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The patient, a Polish immigrant to Connecticut known in literature only as JD, received his first injections on August 27, 1942 at 10 a.m. The doctors observed a dramatic reduction in the patient’s tumor masses.
Florey’s discoveries, along with the discoveries of Alexander Fleming and Ernst Chain, are estimated to have saved over 200 million lives, and he is consequently regarded by the Australian scientific and medical community as one of its greatest figures.
Howard Florey conducts the first-ever clinical trials of penicillin Read more
