Word: crippler
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...knows yet what causes this crippler, which afflicts perhaps 6 million Americans, but it seems to involve the immune system. Some white blood cells-part of the system's defenses-seem to go awry. Possibly because something appears "foreign" to them in the joints, perhaps a virus, they converge at these sites. That causes a chronic inflammation that may erode the cartilage and then the bones, leading to deformity...
...measles (rubeola) used to strike 4 million children a year, kill 400 and leave 800 with irreparable brain damage. By last year, the total number of cases was down to 22,000; only a handful had serious consequences. Much the same is true of German measles (rubella), the crippler of the fetus during pregnancy. From a high of 58,000 reported cases (far below the true total) in 1969, the number of rubella cases dropped to 12,000 last year, and only 45 infants were born with resulting deformities. Smallpox, dreaded and widespread as recently as 1930, is virtually nonexistent...
Graham, a San Francisco anesthesiologist, paid $2,100 for insurance when she started in practice three years ago. Now she must pay $5,100 for the same coverage. Says she: "It's a real crippler...
Immunology has already led to the control of many serious illnesses. Immunological research resulted in the development of vaccines against polio, once a major crippler of children, and rubella, or German measles, which can cause serious birth defects in the children of women who contract it while pregnant. It has led to a broader understanding of allergies and an effective method of preventing erythroblastosis fetalis, a blood condition that can prove fatal to infants shortly after birth...