Medical Advances In Ww2 Essay

Before World War II, medicine and medical practices in the United States was lacking and ineffective. This made it so the majority of fatalities in war were not caused by trauma but by diseases. Diseases were often caught and incurable because of the lack of medical expertise the United States retained, causing death rates to be high. In war, diseases would wipe out soldiers before bullets were even fired. In the early 1930’s when the great depression started, the U.S was at its lowest point. Because of the poor state the United States was in, medical advancements were at a stop. Medical advancements with blood transfusions, vaccines, and antibiotics made it so the U.S strengthened as a whole. These medical advancements on the battlefield Reduced

The majority of deaths in war times were often caused by diseases that were incurable. The United States medical field had to grow to current needs in war but it grew very slowly. The United States Army Ambulance Service was established on June 23, 1917 and the Sanitary Corps established one week later on the 30th. (David Steinert). The Sanitary Corps quickly expanded to nearly 3,000 officers during World War I but, this field was still much smaller than any other military field (David Steinert). Officers of the Sanitary Corps served in many roles including, medical logistics, hospital administration, patient administration, resource management, x-ray, laboratory engineering, physical reconstruction, gas defense, and venereal disease control (mtaofnj). Even with all of these new medical advancements the death rates in war were still very high. In less than a year of fighting in WWI the American armed forces suffered more than 318,000 casualties, of which 120,000 were

The medicines created during World War II were Sulfanilamide, Penicillin, Atabrine, Plasma and Morphine. These medicines are still commonly used in the United States in many medical practices. Sulfanilamide was one of the first medicines that controlled and prevented bacterial infection. It was created by Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk and was first used three years before World War II (mtaofnj). This was an important medicine to keep soldiers alive longer on the battlefield since infection was inevitable in the dirty conditions. American soldiers were taught to immediately sprinkle sulfa powder on any open wound to prevent infection. Sulfanilamide worked great for the start of World War II but Penicillin was discovered and took place of Sulfanilamide. Penicillin was know as the miracle drug because of how well it worked and how many lives it saved. It was an antibacterial just like Sulfanilamide but it had better results and less side effects when using it. It was invented in 1928 by Sir Alexander Fleming but he could not make enough penicillin to be used in practice so, the discovery was dismissed for 10 years (mtaofnj). Eventually the drug was studied and produced again. The U.S. government authorized 19 companies to produce the antibiotic using Pfizer's deep-tank fermentation techniques (mtaofnj). Penicillin was used for the rest of World War II because of how effective it