The Government In Charge of Our Entire Health-Care System?

Selman Waksman and Antibiotics


"The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them." Ecclesiasticus, xxxviii, 41

Selman Waksman called his autobiography My Life with the Microbes. That is also the title of the first chapter of the book, which begins "I have devoted my life to the study of microbes, those infinitesimal forms of life which play such important roles in the life of man, animals, and plants. I have studied their nature, life processes, and their relation to man, helping him and destroying him… I have contemplated the destructive capacities of some microbes and the constructive activities of others. I have tried to find ways and means for discouraging the first and encouraging the second."2

It was a particular kind of microbe found in the soil that intrigued Waksman: the actinomycetes, a group of microorganisms closely related to bacteria. During his long career studying actinomycetes, Waksman realized that many of these microorganisms could inhibit the growth of other microorganisms. That led to the systematic search, starting in the late 1930s, for antimicrobial agents to fight disease, a search made critical by the approach of war.

Waksman and his students, in their laboratory at Rutgers University, established the first screening protocols to detect antimicrobial agents produced by microorganisms. This deliberate search for chemotherapeutic agents contrasts with the discovery of penicillin, which came through a chance observation by Alexander Fleming, who noted that a mold contaminant on a Petri dish culture had inhibited the growth of a bacterial pathogen. During the 1940s, Waksman and his students isolated more than fifteen antibiotics, the most famous of which was streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.

American chemical Society

First use of anesthesia in a surgical procedure...


Ether Dome
Boston, Massachusetts

Plan carefully before attempting to visit the Ether Dome, the historic site of the first use of anesthesia in a surgical procedure. The Ether Dome is in Massachusetts General Hospital, and God help any who think they'll find convenient parking. Taking the "T" is recommended.

skeleton.Once inside the hospital, helpful folks at the Info Desk will direct you to the proper elevator to the fourth floor.

The Ether Dome, an airy space lit from above by daylight, is immediately recognizable as one of those Hollywood medical lecture halls ("They all laughed at my theories, the fools!").

This is where Thomas W. G. Morton administered ether while Dr. John Collins Warren cut a tumor out of the neck of patient Gilbert Abbott on October 16, 1846. Names of important figures in the discovery of ether are inscribed on brass plaques on each seat.

Patient's-eye view of the dome.The facility is actively used for lectures, and meeting evident from the powered lecturn and data projector. If the stench of primitive anesthetics is still here, it has grown very faint.

The Ether Dome doesn't really have the cabinet-of-curiosities aura we were anticipating -- it's no Mutter Museum. However, there is an Egyptian mummy, a large marble statue of Apollo ...and a skeleton!

Ether Dome:
55 Fruit St, Boston, MA

1977 The Development of Sensitive Tests to Measure Hormones Using Antibodies

ROSALIND YALLOW working with Soloman Berson discovered the association of autoantibodies with insulin-resistant diabetes. She developed a very sensitive method for measuring the concentration of hormones in blood, using specific antibodies and a radioactive antigen. This "immunoassay" method for hormones had enormous clinical benefit for patients with hormonal problems. She was the first woman immunologist to win the Nobel Prize.

Gertrude Elion
Gertrude Elion invented the leukemia-fighting drug 6-mercaptopurine and drugs that facilitated kidney transplants.

~ Mary Bellis

Gertrude Elion patented the leukemia-fighting drug 6-mercaptopurine in 1954 and has made a number of significant contributions to the medical field. Dr. Gertrude Elion's research led to the development of Imuran, a drug that aids the body in accepting transplanted organs, and Zovirax, a drug used to fight herpes.

Including 6-mercaptopurine, Getrude Elion's name is attached to some 45 patents. In 1988, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine with George Hitchings and Sir James Black. Dr. Gertrude Elion was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991, she continued to be an advocate for medical and scientific advancement until her death in February of 1999.

The child of Lithuanian and Polish immigrants, Gertrude Elion decided to become involved in cancer research after losing her grandfather to cancer when she was 15 years old. At age 19, she graduated with the highest undergraduate honors in chemistry from Hunter College. However, 15 institutes rejected her application for graduate school because of the unfair discrimination towards women in the sciences that existed at that time. Elion was forced to work as an unpaid lab assistant in order to have the opportunity to further her research in science.

In 1944, Burroughs Wellcome, a pharmaceuticals company, hired Gertrude Elion to work with nucleic acids. During her 39-year career there, Gertrude Elion made most of her scientific advances, including the development of 6-mercaplopurine used in chemotherapy to treat children with leukemia that won her the Nobel Prize.

invenstors.about.com

Many more examples will be provided demonstrating that the United States of America has been a leader in medical progress.

Excuse me, but is this person in any way a source for the alleged leukemia cluster at Argonne / University of Chicago? Thomas and lots of us very familiar with the nonexistence of said cluster in any of the U.S. nuclear laboratories hope for a clarification.

Will get a link if necessary - saw Thomas's request for your source on a politics thread about Obama and nuclear energy.

The History of HIV Protease Inhibitors By Mary Bellis

HIV protease inhibitors were first invented between 1989 and 1994 by researchers working for the pharmaceutical companies of Hoffmann- La Roche Inc. (of Nutley, New Jersey), Abbott Laboratories and Merck & Co., Inc. HIV protease inhibitors are used in the treatment of patients with AIDS and were considered the first breakthrough in over a decade of AIDS research. HIV protease inhibitors can lower the viral load carried by AIDS patents.

Currently, there are five HIV protease inhibitors approved by FDA for the treatment of HIV infection. These medications work at the final stage of viral replication and attempt to prevent HIV from making new copies of itself by interfering with the HIV protease enzyme. As a result, the new copies of HIV are not able to infect new cells.1 The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the new drugs in December, 1995 for Invirase; and March, 1996 for Norvir and Crixivan.

Hoffmann- La Roche Inc invented the first HIV protease inhibitor trade named Invirase (saquinavir) U.S. patent #5,196,438; the inventors were:

* Joseph A. Martin
* Sally Redshaw

Abbott Laboratories' inventors created the HIV protease inhibitor trade named Norvir (ritonavir) U.S. patent #5,541,206; and the inventors were:

* Dale J. Kempf
* Daniel W. Norbeck
* Hing L. Sham
* Chen Zhao

Abbott Laboratories who were also behind the invention of Pentothal, later invented a second HIV protease inhibitor trade named Kaletra.

Merck & Co.'s inventors created the HIV protease inhibitor trade named Crixivan (indinavir) U.S. patent #5,413,999; and the inventors were:

* Joseph P. Vacca
* Bruce D. Dorsey
* James P. Guare
* M. Katharine Holloway
* Randall W. Hungate
* Rhonda B. Levin

The HIV protease inhibitor Viracept (nelfinavir) developed by Agouron Pharmaceuticals (the pharmaceutical division of Japan Tobacco) under U.S. patent #5,484,926; and the inventors were:

* Bruce A. Dressman
* James E. Fritz
* Marlys Hammond
* William J. Thornback
* Stephen W. Kaldor
* Vincent J. Kalish
* John E. Munroe
* Siegfried H. Reich
* John H. Tatlock
* Timothy A. Shepherd
* Michael J. Rodriguez

Agenerase (amprenavir) is marketed by Glaxo Wellcome, Inc (licensed from Vertex Phamaceuticals) U.S. patent #5,585,397. Agenerase was invented by:

* Roger D. Tung
* Mark A. Murcko
* Govinda R. Bhisetti


inventors.about.com

That's okay. Certainly a good reason not to join all countries and get an universal health care.

Vaccine Against Viral Hepatitis
Baruch Blumberg was the American research physician whose discovery of an antigen that provokes antibody response against hepatitis B led to the development by other researchers of a successful vaccine against the disease.

inventors.about.com

And...there are still many, many more American contributions to medical progress to be listed.

========================================
This was in response to:
maporsche wrote:

Were there any examples you were thinking of the help prove that "the U.S. has been a leader in medical progress."

In her statement, maporsche makes no mention of "universal health care". She does however, doubt that the United States of America played any significant role in medical history.

More to follow.

This thread moves fast, so I'm reposting Thomas' query from the other thread in its entirety:

Why do you suppose?

No. maporsche was asking for examples that the US were the "leader in medical progress."

There's no doubt that the United States are playing a significant role. But so is South Africa.




Oh yes, please. Keep up the good work.

You know, that will totally convince people that nobody needs universal health care. Most definitely.

Dammit, I must be ill, for the first time ever I agree with Old Europe on policy! Anyway, link Thomas' post quoted above follows:

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=100593&start=20

The courtesy of a reply would be appreciated.

Yes, sorry, of course 'thank you' and keep on posting.

I'm totally convinced by your arguments that the government should never be in charge of your entire health care system.

Thank you Walter, but I doubt it's necessary...But then

Just a little correction, oe, we already have "universal" health care. Anyone can go to any Emergency room anywhere in this country and receive care.

Further, I would like to remind everyone that universal insurance would not need to equate to a single payer system. To drive a car here in most states, you are supposed to have proof of auto insurance, which would be universal car and human body care resulting from auto mishaps. So I don't think I have a problem with the idea that if anyone ever expects to receive health care, either planned or unplanned, they should be required to have medical insurance, at least for catastrophic health care. The primary thing I am in favor of is as much free market forces as possible remaining in the system, and single payer is not the way to go to attain that.

Well, your finespun argumentation here completely convinced me that an universal health care system is something archaic, medieval, inhuman - a commie thing, exactly.