What diseases were cured in the 19th century?

Answer 1

Smallpox

Another widely feared disease is smallpox. Affecting people of all ages is especially fatal to young children. Smallpox is caused by a virus which creates small blister-like bumps on the skin and instead the mouth and throat , sometimes swelling causing difficulty in breathing. After catching it, however, and surviving, one does not get it again. This information is used to find a vaccine to prevent the disease.

Poliomyelitis

Another disease affecting primarily children, Poliomyelitis, attacks the spinal cord and brain, often leaving a child to wake up and find his limbs paralyzed. Only bed rest appeared to offer any help in lessening the affects of the disease. It won't be until the middle of the 20th century (1952) that an American doctor by the name of Jonas Salk will develop a vaccine for the prevention of the disease.

Diphtheria

Another common childhood disease, highly contagious, is Diphtheria, the formation of a thick gray membrane in a child's throat making it difficult to breathe. Fever and weakness also accompanied the growth and quite often resulted in death.

Robert Koch, a German scientist, studied the disease and determined the "bacillus" bacteria to be the cause. He also determined that as the bacteria flowed through the bloodstream, it damaged cells in the heart. Two medical students took the results of Koch's experiments and were successful in developing an "antitoxin" which would both prevent and cure the disease

Answer 2

Diptheria, tuberculosis, small pox, chicken pox, cholera