The first editorial of 2011 of the prestigious magazine The Lancet looks back 100 years and analyzes another editorial that the magazine published, with the title "The promises of 1911", in which it is clear that many of the relevant medical issues a hundred years ago they are still in force today.
The editor of the medical journal in 1911, Squire Sprigge, spoke of the "demon of tuberculosis", an infectious disease that continues today: 2.7 million people died last year at the hands of the tuberculosis bacillus, the majority in Africa, and antibiotic resistant strains have emerged in recent years. Rabies, diphtheria and syphilis, worrisome in the 20th century, are also wreaking havoc today, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). On the other hand, if in the 1911 editorial the fundamental challenge was to "elucidate the causes of cancer" , currently, despite the fact that we have identified a large part of its causes (viruses, tobacco, ultraviolet radiation …), the disease it remains a problem, in many cases intractable.
On the other hand, despite a century having elapsed between the two articles, anesthesia , food safety , cocaine addiction and even homeopathy – which Sprigge referred to as "the danger of charlatans" – were and continue being subjects of concern and debate among health experts.
