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- Radical curatives will play a key role in the universal health care
David E. Bloom wrote an article entitled “The promise and peril of universal health care” (1).
Based on WHO’s International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems(ICD), the number of diseases should be from 30000 to 40000 (2). However, pharmacopeia illustrates approximately 20000 drugs registered (3, 4, 5). The registered drugs with a variety of dosages are duplicated so that several thousand drugs only exist in our society. Many drugs for treatment are used in health care to imply a process to manage the disease or disorder and improve outcomes. We do have few drugs for cure.
In order to achieve the universal health care, our limited economical resources have to be efficiently and optimally used. If we will use the current curative approach for individual diseases, our resources will become depleted sooner or later.
In order to dramatically improve the curative approach, radical curatives will play a key role in the universal health care where pathophysiological factors including excessive oxidant stress and inflammation are associated with many diseases.References:
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1. Science 24 Aug 2018: Vol. 361, Issue 6404
2. http://apps.who.int/classifications/icd10/browse/2016/en#/U00-U49
3. http://www.usp.org/
4. https://www.pharmacopoeia.com/
...Competing Interests: None declared.