Passage 19
During the past three generations, the diseases affecting Western societies have undergone dramatic changes.
Polio, diphtheria, tuberculosis, commonly known as TB, are vanishing; one injection of an antibiotic often cures deadly diseases such as pneumonia or syphilis, and so many mass killers have come under control that two-thirds of all death is now associated with the diseases of old age.
Those who die young are more often than not victims of accidents, violence, or suicide. These changes in health status are generally equated with the decrease in suffering and attributed to more or better medical care.
Almost everyone believes that at least one of his friends would not be alive and well except for the skill of a doctor. But there is, in fact, no evidence of any direct relationship between this change in the pattern or nature of sickness on the one hand and the so-called progress of medicine on the other hand.
These changes are the results of political technological changes. They are not related to the activities that require the preparation and status of doctors or the costly equipment in which doctors take pride.
In addition, an increase in the number of new diseases in the last fifteen years are themselves the result of medical intervention. They are doctor-made or iatrogenic.
In the Western societies, the occurrences of polio, diphtheria, and tuberculosis has
Correct Answer: (c) decreased
Solution:In the Western societies, the occurrences of polio, diphtheria, and tuberculosis has decreased.