BHG7M1 Boy being given medicine

There are millions of children, both in the United States and around the world, who are alive today thanks to some of the recent advances we have made in the provision of children’s health care. As time goes on, we gain a deeper understanding of how to diagnose, treat, and prevent a number of serious conditions, which previously would have proven to be fatal in many cases.

Although we take many of these discoveries for granted in our modern world, they are actually the result of many years of hard work from a number of gifted individuals and should be celebrated as such. In this article, we take a look at just some of the major advances in children’s healthcare that have transformed the industry in recent times.

Vaccines

Vaccines are arguably the most significant healthcare innovation of the last century. Both adults and children have benefited from the introduction of vaccines, but they have proven to have made a great difference to infant mortality rates across the world. There is still a drive amongst public health officials to continue to increase the uptake rate of vaccinations amongst parents.

Reducing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) has for a long time been one of the major challenges facing the healthcare industry. SIDS, sometimes known as crib death, still has no clearly defined cause. It involves children aged one or younger falling asleep and then not waking up. In 1993, there were 4,700 cases of SIDS and researchers were struggling to establish a cause. They soon discovered that when children slept on their fronts rather than their backs, they were far more likely to be affected by the condition. As a result of the ensuing public awareness campaign encouraging parents to put their babies to sleep on their backs, rates of SIDS have dropped dramatically.

Childhood Cancers

The most common childhood cancer affects the bone marrow and blood – it is called acute lymphocytic leukemia and, until relatively recently, it was an automatic death sentence. Fortunately, we have since made significant advances in the way that we diagnose and treat this type of cancer. We are now able to spot it earlier and treat it more aggressively. As a result, patients have a much better chance of surviving and recovering. Whereas in 1975, as many as three-quarters of those who were diagnosed with the disease would ultimately die because of it, today the survival rate is over 90%.

Side Effects Reporting

Prior to the advent of the internet and instantaneous communications, the process of reporting any side effects experienced while using medicines was a lengthy one that relied on the submission of physical documents. Now, however, there are systems in place to make reporting side effects easy; there is also a much greater awareness of what side effects exist, how to spot them, and the most appropriate way of reacting to them. Websites such as Side Effect Answers have made this information freely and widely available.

Childhood healthcare has progressed at a great speed in recent years and, fortunately, innovations in the field are continuing to improve the lives of children across the globe.