Hygiene: the greatest medical achievement since 1840

Sanitation was voted the most important medical milestone in a century and a half in a poll conducted by the British Medical Journal. Improved sewers and water supply systems - things that reduce diseases like cholera, have been voted for by most of the 11,341 people worldwide.

Hygiene beyond antibiotics, detection of DNA and anesthesia - among the top five landmarks elected. Participants were asked what kind of medical progress was the biggest since the British Medical Journal was founded in 1840.

Professor Johan Mackenbach of Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam, one of the hygienists, said: 'I am very happy that many people see it as an important achievement. Passive protection against health enemies is often the best way to improve people's health. '

London was one of the first cities of the new era to finally solve the problem of poor hygiene, after British doctor John Snow discovered it in 1854 that cholera was related to water and not air like humans. I think earlier.

Q.HONG