• Question: If you could end 1 disease for ever which would you choose? and Why?

    Asked by to Ben, Dave, Ditte, Heather, Rebecca on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Rebecca Gladstone

      Rebecca Gladstone answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      This is a great question!
      I think that if i could stop one disease it would be diarrhoea.
      Here in the UK it is usually just an inconvience and not pleasant but in the world it is actually the 2nd biggest cause of death in children under 5 (760 000 deaths every year) it is also the leading cause of malnutrition in children under 5 and there are 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoea globally every single year! 🙁
      Another reason I would choose this is because it is both preventable and treatable now, we don’t even need much science to stop these deaths happening which is such a shame. Most cases of diarrhoea could be prevented by providing safe drinking-water, toilets and hygiene measures.

    • Photo: Ditte Hedegaard

      Ditte Hedegaard answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      That is good question and a very difficult one too!

      I agree with Rebecca, it would be amazing if we could end diarrhea. Too many children die of diarrhea each year.

      Another disease I like to stop is dementia, which is a disease where you don’t remember anything and don’t recognise your family, friends or even your own reflection in mirror. About 44 million people are affected by dementia worldwide and although most are old, there is a few which are fairly young.

      Scientists now believe that the type of dementia called Alzheimer’s disease is a result of a human protein, called amyloid, getting stock in the brain. High numbers of this protein will damage the nerve cells in the brain and the person will slowly forget how speak, walk and won’t recognise anyone. Eventually the person will die because the brain is completely damaged. I can’t think of anything worse than losing my mind and not knowing anyone or anything. I don’t think anyone should experience that, but unfortunately there is no cure against dementia.

    • Photo: Ben White

      Ben White answered on 22 Jun 2014:

      According to the World Health Organisation, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world; 7.4 million people died from it in 2012. This number will likely keep increasing as the number of obese and overweight people suffering from metabolic dysfunction goes up. In the UK in 2030 it is predicted that 74% cent of men and 64% of women, will be overweight or obese. This will make an extra 461,000 people in the UK alone likely to suffer from some form of heart disease.

      Also, some scientists consider aging to be a form of a disease, so if we could stop this and live healthy into later life that would be nice.

    • Photo: Dave Baker

      Dave Baker answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Great answers so far. I guess the amount of resources going into the study and treatment of all cancers is massive and to cure all cancers would save money, time and energy for research and NHS resources to be put alsewhere.

    • Photo: Heather Ritchie

      Heather Ritchie answered on 24 Jun 2014:

      Oooo great question.

      For me I think I’d like to eradicate malaria. It is a horrible disease that many people work hard to help prevent but it is proving very difficult to vaccinate against.

      Recently scientists have looked at developing a preventative by altering female mosquitos ( who are the ones who bite people and pass on the diseases) so they only produce sterile male offspring to help reduce the number of mosquitos in the wild.

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