Question: why are medicines important

Sandra Greive answered on 10 Mar 2017:

Medicines are very important because they stop us dying from disease. Before antibiotics were discovered people used to die from simple infections. Small cuts and coughs could lead to sepsis or pneumonia and then death. Before we knew about insulin, people with type 1 diabetes (when they have it from a child or teenager) would develop kidney problems that would eventually kill them. Medicine can help control blood pressure to prevent heart attacks and strokes. Medicine can help prevent epilepsy and the damage that happens to the brain each time a fit happens. With all the new medicine around cancer patients now often survive for 10 years or more (when they would have died in less than a year). New anti-inflammation drugs mean that people with arthritis and crone’s disease can live almost normal lives without pain and fatigue. Medicines are really important and we need to keep discovering new ones to treat antibiotic resistant bacteria and cure all cancers.