Why have there been no major cures to diseases, yet there's so many medications ?

In the mid 20th century, some major cures were discovered, one of the most famous being Polio.

Yet for the last several decades, no major cures - while at the same time, they've somehow been able to find literally hundreds of ways through medication to treat symptoms, slow the progression of multiple afflications - you'd think somewhere in all of that, they would've found a cure !!!

Hasn't medical science advanced exponentially, plus we have the aid of the advancement of computers now - shouldn't we be BETTER equipped for this type of research ?

Is is because there's no money in cures ? I mean, it's not like a polio vaccine causes thousands of dollars - and a polio vaccine is a one-time thing, there's no cash flow from the same person...

... and of course, harvesting stem cells from aborted fetuses is the panecea - THAT's the ticket, right ?

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Lisa A,
Ok, vaccine - why can't we come up with vaccines ?

Its not that we are better equipped and i assure you we are, its just these big pharmaceutical companies want to milk everyone as much as they can because they could easily make a cure for something. If they cure something like diabetes, well that's millions of people who wont be needing to buy insulin anymore and that's billions of dollars in lost revenue. so you kinda see where im going with that :)

Polio has not been cured. A vaccine was developed, so polio can be prevented. If you get polio though, you can not be cured. It will be devastating. Polio is a virus, and viruses can not be cured.

The only diseases that we can cure are bacterial infections.

I do find it odd and maybe a little suspect that the things that make money get the most attention.

money if there is a cure then they don't make big money anymore

We've kinda exhausted the "low-hanging fruit" of the disease spectrum, so the easy fixes are all out of the way. With some of the diseases we have now (like my buddy MS), we don't even know completely what causes it, which makes it difficult to cure it. Even with all our advanced technologies, with things like autoimmune diseases where the body is doing something we don't understand, cures are difficult to come by.

Consider also, our safety protocols have increased exponentially since those days. Back then, we could give people any sort of concoction to try to treat them, without fear of the possible side-effects, or if it might kill the patient or not. Our medical system's checks and balances allows for reasonably safe medical trials, but it significantly increases time to market for drugs.

Also consider the economics of medicine. The cost of medical insurance and the cost of doing business in a medical field means that you have to step lightly or you could either be sued out of existence or simply lose your business completely.

Believe me, I'm no apologist for the medical community, but I can see the differences between how medicine was practiced back then as opposed to how it is practiced now.

And just to be clear, even though I hate opening up this can of worms, how many diseases have been able to be treated with adult stem cells? Over 50 and growing. How many diseases have been able to be treated with embryonic stem cells? Yup, ZERO. Stem cells, good. EMBRYONIC stem cells, bad.

Allopathy is the boon to the mankind in this century. Polio, small pox, malaria, plague. TB,etc., have been tackled successfully. there is longevity of life due to pinpointed identification and removing the affected part in the body by surgery.Kidney/Heart transplant is a mystery to take out the person from the jaws of death and prolong life; however it costs more, natural immunity is dummied and protection is rendered by antibiotics. Every medical science attemps to find cure for all the diseases.At the same time, every medical system has its own limitations.
Allopathy is excellent for trauma care, accidents, diabetes, cardiac care, emergencies, prenatal and post natal care, safe deliveries, child health, mother's health, etc.
It can microscopically identify the affected cells/tissues and pinpointedly attack by laser beams.the relief, if clcks, is dramatic.

All these modern day ailments have been successfully tackled by ayurveda, nature cure, acupressure/acupuncture as practised in India, Chine, the oldest civilisations.
pollution by industrial wastes, bad food habits, deep-freezed meat/mutton and taking out after 15 days and deep-frying it and eating is the source of all these unforseen ailments, lack of exercise, living away from nature and natural environment are also responsine for the modern day ailmens.