Sulfanilamide (Molecule of it)
German biochemist, Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk, was determined to expose a further benefit of sulfanilamide other than being an “active chemical agents produced when a dye marketed as “Prontosil” began to degrade”. In 1932, he began to deconstruct this red dye in hopes of uncovering the secrets that it holds. He found out that the sulfanilamide, the byproduct of the dye, can kill deadly strains of bacteria. An example, “sulfanilamide proved effective in destroying streptococcal bacteria in lab mice”. When his daughter came down with strep throat, he used sulfanilamide on her and it cured her, proving that sulfanilamide not only works on mice but also on human beings. His daughter was on the edge of death and only survived because of the sulfanilamide. “In 1935, Domagk concluded definitively that a group of chemicals known as sulfonamides were responsible for the cure. For this discovery, he received the Nobel Prize for medicine”. During WWII, it became a routine for soldiers to carry sulfanilamide powder in their first aid kits which could be easily applied on wounds and prevent against fatal infections. It was also used to treat pneumonia and meningitis. “Some historians credit sulfanilamide with helping the Allied Forces claim victory World War II since it kept soldiers healthy”. Sulfanilamide soon became less popular after the more widespread use of penicillin and other antibacterial medications.
Improvement in Transportation(vehicles)
During WW2, improvement in transportation became more important as battles become more widespread and constantly moving. Semi-mobile medical units were formed copying the idea of the French auto-chir. Although these medical teams were difficult to transport and only provided limited help, they still became an important step “towards mobile army surgical hospitals (MASH units)of Korea and Vietnam” (McCallum). Fixed-wing aircrafts were used for aeromedical evacuation to move men from or to hospitals. During prolonged transits in the Pacific war, the U.S. Army Nurse Corps managed patients for these long periods. This eventually gave rise to the flight nurses we have today. The U.S. navy also produced an additional 8 hospital ships to the 2 previous ones when they were crucial in the island wars in the Pacific. The ships were needed because the distances were long and there were no hospitals nearby. Each hospital ship manned “4 surgeons and 27 corpsmen and capable of serving as a field hospital for up to 350 wounded”(McCallum).
Management of Shock/Plasma and Blood Donations (Bag with blood)
In the 1930s, Soviets scientists found out that plasma could be used to efficiently treat shock. The two advantages of using plasma was that plasma is not type-specific and had long storage periods. Plasma was widely administered in the early stages of WW2. However, as the war progressed, plasma’s limitations to replace blood was evident, and the use of blood to treat shock became more widespread. Due to the need of more blood and plasma during the war, the British founded a national blood-banking program which the America also adopted later on. Many of the donors for blood and plasma were not civilians, but rather from the soldiers themselves.
Triage (online cycle)
Triage, the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounded or ill patients, were considerably improved. By 1939, “military surgeons understood the importance of early management of battlefield trauma”. In each combat unit there will be a medic who was trained in controlling blood loss and administering painkillers. Injectable morphine was also dispensed among soldiers in order to lessen pain and shock. The transportation of injured troops were now carried out in several stages, each with their own functions. Troops may also leave this chain of stages at any time and return to duty based on the severity of their wounds. The next phase after field stabilization was the “regimental collecting station, where bandages designed to limit blood loss and splints could be applied”. This station also had blood and plasma to treat shock. Moreover, it could provide tracheostomy if needed. Then, soldiers could move to semi-mobile field hospitals which are capable to perform emergency surgeries. The final stage is the general hospital where more complex medical treatment and surgeries could be executed. Here, soldiers could also recuperate before being sent back out into battle. Additionally, the general hospitals could provide reconstructive surgery and long-term rehabilitation for more serious cases. The enhancement of triage led to a greater rate of survival for wounded soldiers and increase the number of patients doctors can treat.
Painkillers (pills)
The drastic numbers of wounded men during the war pushed medical research to find a non addictive painkiller. “In 1939, Otto Eisleb under the I. G. Farbenindustrie pharmaceutical company in Germany discovered dolantin, a painkiller less potent than morphine and better known by the name meperidine”. By 1944, manufacturers were producing “ 1,600 kilograms of meperidine annually” due to the influence that the war had. While meperidine was used for short term pain relief, morphine was used for more seriously wounded soldiers. Squibb, a drug company, created morphine “syrettes, flexible syringe-like devices for injecting the narcotic” for ease of use on the field. Although it was beneficial to the soldiers, this painkiller derived from opium was extremely addictive.
Frostbite Treatment (tub of water with thermometer sticking out)
Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army subjected prisoners of war, mostly Chinese peasants, were subjected to horrific torture while carrying out medical experiments. One experiment was drenching the POWs and leaving them with exposed arms in freezing weather, waiting for frostbite to set in. Doctors learned from this experiment that immersing a frostbitten limb into water “between 100 and 122 degrees fahrenheit was the best way to treat this common ailment. Although the cost of this medical breakthrough came at a high price, the Japanese doctors were able to develop an effective treatment for frostbite, which is still used today.
Nutrition Science(veggies and meat)
During WW2, U.S. scientists started to conduct studies to see how many calories were consumed while performing certain physical activities and other studies such as identifying which vitamins and minerals that were most crucial for the human body. As a result of these studies, proper “proper food preparation, storage, handling, and preparation”. These food regulations still remain important in our society today. Additionally, the research on vitamins and minerals allowed the U.S. to prepare food that will maximize the soldiers’ energy during the war.
Management of Malaria (insecticide ddt)
In WW2, the Allied soldiers were forced to fight in tropical areas where malaria was rampant. “In the latter part of 1942 and early 1943, American soldiers in the Solomons were hospitalized for malaria at a rate of 970 per 1,000 per year, with 100,000 men ultimately contracting the disease” Unfortunately, Japan had captured all sources of Quinine, the main treatment for malaria. Atabrine, a substitute was then used for treatment “and although soldiers had to be forced to take it because of its bitter taste and tendency to turn the skin yellow, 2.5 billion doses had been dispensed by war's end”. In addition to this, efforts were made to control the mosquitos that carried the disease through coating the pond with oil and spraying the newly invented insecticide, DDT. All these actions carried out to manage malaria lowered the hospitalization for malaria to “less than one percent of hospitalized American personnel had malaria by the end of 1943”.
Managing Chemical Warfare
During WW2, a new type of weapon was used: chemicals. As chemical warfare became more and more prevalent throughout the war, scientists began to produce drugs and other inventions to cope with the gas attacks. Although the drugs were able to help cope with the chemicals, the gas mask provided the best defense against the gas. Over the time of the war, the appearance of the gas masks didn’t change, but improvements to the carbon that absorbs the poisonous gas were made. This enabled soldiers to be less affected by the chemical warfare and the lives of hundred thousand civilians were saved.
Penicillin (url)
Sir Alexander Fleming accidentally founded penicillin after he left mold growing in a discarded petri dish. He took staph bacteria, injected it into the mold, and discovered that the mold had killed the bacteria. He shared his findings to the science community in 1929, and in 1945 received the nobel prize for his research on penicillin.
After learning about the abilities that penicillin has on killing bacteria, 21 drug companies began to produce it for use in WW2. “400 million doses of penicillin were manufactured in 1943 for war use”(Nursing History). The penicillin paved its way into the battlefield, protecting wounds from future infections and even gangrene. Before the use of penicillin, the time lapse of 14 hours between when a man being wounded and him being operated on by a surgeon allowed a wound to be infected. However, with the use of penicillin, the chances of a wound being infected was greatly reduced and the rate of survival increased tremendously.
Vaccines (injection)
“Wars magnify the spread and severity of disease by disrupting populations”. Before WW2, more soldiers would die disease than from actual battles. The U.S. military recognized this and partnered with the industry and academia to develop vaccines for the troops. In 1941, the U.S. commissioned the development of the flu vaccine. Virologist, Thomas Francis Jr., gained approval for the flu vaccine by the FDA in less than two years, being the “first licensed flu vaccine in the US”. Later on, the army discovered that the flu vaccine needed annual tweaking to combat the various strains of the flu.
The wartime events drove the vaccine development in order for the army to meet objectives for particular operations. For example, “botulinum toxoid was mass-produced prior to D-Day in response to (faulty) intelligence that Germany had loaded V-1 bombs with the toxin that causes botulism”. Wartime and urgency led to high rates of vaccine innovations, which improved the troops well-being, allowing soldiers to focus on battles, rather than sickness.
New Standards for Medical Research
Throughout WW2, inhumane experiments, carried out in the name of science, had led to “permanent changes in standards for scientific research”. Examples of these horrendous experiments included the Japanese using “Soviet and Chinese prisoners of war and civilians in biowarfare experiments in Manchuria and [performing] anatomy experiments on live American prisoners in Japan”. Germans also used inmates from the concentration camps to conduct humans’ tolerance on pressure and cold. After the end of WW2, Allied doctors were brought in to assist in forming standards, which are still used today, for ethical human experimentation, known as the Nuremberg Code.