Dear Antibiotics, thank you!

So this is not the next post I intended to write, but I wanted to share this cool article from NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine, arguably the most prominent medical journal to have your article published in).

The article is part of 200th anniversary of the journal and discusses the leading causes of death in 1900 and in 2010 in the US.  You can see the dramatic reduction in disease burden from contagious and infectious diseases.  The three leading causes of death in 1900:  pneumonia/influenza, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal infections.  In present day, it's heart disease, cancer, and "non-infectious airway diseases".

Click the graphic to enlarge it.

Article source:


Jones, David S., "The Burden of Disease and the Changing Task of Medicine", N Engl J Med 2012; 366:2333-2338June 21, 2012

Link to article: http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1113569