Which medicine was the most notable scientific breakthrough?

Question

To be more clear.......which does the most for the most people

Answer 1

I have to say that Penicillin is the most important scientific breakthrough that I can think of.

Before penicillin, there was very little that we could do to fight an infection.  Cuts, scrapes and small wounds were often fatal because of the infection, and amputation was a very cruel medical procedure.

Penicillin revolutionized the medical industry by giving us the best weapons against infection.  Without it, our death rate would probably be more than triple what it is today.

Answer 2

Aspirin.

Answer 3

I would say antibiotics.

Answer 4

Penicillin.

Answer 5

I believe it was penicillin and it played a vital role in helping with the treament of wounded troops during WW II.

Answer 6

Chlorpromazine!!!  Just ask any psychiatrist, neuroscientist or neuropsychopharmacologist, since December 1950.  At least in my world, the first antipsychotic, is "the most notable scientific breakthrough."  This drug is not only known for its antipsychotic effects, but also for providing a foundation for nearly all psychotropics used today!  "Without the discovery of drugs such as chlorpromazine we might still have the miserable confinements witnessed by Montague Lomax—a world of desperate remedies" (Trevor Turner).

Thanks Dr. Rebec for teaching me!

Answer 7

Antibiotics would be my guess.

Answer 8

ROTFLMAO! As soon as I saw your question, I focused on the "medical breaktrhough" part and thought "The discovery that germs cause illness, the discovery of bacteria and viruses" which, of course, is directly related to antibiotics being used to kill bacteria then I click on this question and see that several people answered with "antibiotics" or "penicillin."  I read the question a 2nd time and realized that you were asking about MEDICINE.

I have to say, though, we should remember that antibiotics do not help everyone and some people are allergic to penicillin. Antibiotics can't do a thing against viruses, they just kill bacteria, and there are people who have DIED from using penicillin. My aunt was one of them, Dad's sister had pneumonia back in the 1940's when penicillin was all the rage and they dosed her up but it made her worse, she was allergic. So they gave her bigger doses and she DIED from it.

She was a young woman, engaged to be married, with her whole life ahead of her. I never knew her, of course, except as photographs but I catch myself wondering what she was like.

Despite that tragedy, though, I think antibiotics are wonderful and have vastly improved everyone's quality of life.

Answer 9

Penicillin, period.

Saved lives and extended life expectancy dramatically.  It was the most important medical discovery in history.

Answer 10

The first anaesthetics would be my pick, not the old half a bottle of brandy, to ease the pain during surgery.

Answer 11

There are for 5  major breakthroughs:

Surgery in a control environment.

Vaccines.

Antibiotics.

The new drugs, like Zantac, Prozac, Viagra, ...

The treatment and management of high blood pressure, with drugs.

The new frontier (to name a few):

how the heart works, I mean at the cellular level

how the brain works

cancer

artificial blood

AIDS