Toward Eradicating All Diseases

Introduction

A world without diseases and pain has been a dream of people in many nations. In Buddhism, there is a Western Paradise, Sukhavati, where everybody is joyous without any suffering and the land is filled with the music of birds and the tinkling of trees adorned with precious jewels and garlands of golden bells (Pas, 1995). Such a dream is a reflection of the wish to be free from diseases by people who suffer painfully from them. Economic growth and scientific progress since Industrial Revolution have dramatically increased the average living standard and improved people’s health. Better nutrition following economic growth improves people’s health and strengthens their body’s defense against infectious diseases, better public health measures prevent or slow down the spread of diseases, and progress in medicine has made many previously incurable diseases curable. The life expectancy at birth has increased from about 35 years to around 80 years in the late 20^th century in developed countries (Ma, 2017; Oeppen & Vaupel, 2002; Olshansky, Carnes, & Désesquelles, 2001). The increased longevity demonstrates the great success achieved by medical professionals, biomedical scientists, and biotechnology engineers.

The increase in the life expectancy at birth is attributable firstly to the control of severe infectious diseases and reduction in infant death rate, and secondly to the increased longevity due to improved living conditions and health care (Ma, 2012). In the first half of the 20^th century and earlier, the increase in the life expectancy at birth is largely due to the first cause such that longevity has not increased much for people who survive to adulthood. In the second half of the 20^th century, the increase in the life expectancy at birth is mainly due to the increased longevity via improved health care. The life expectancy is increasing linearly without a trend to plateau (Oeppen & Vaupel, 2002). Some life scientists think that mankind is at the brink to increase the life expectancy sharply as biomedical sciences have made sufficient progress in understanding the human aging process. It is said that the first person to live 1000 years might have been born (The Economist, 2016). With rapid progress in medicine and biotechnology in the 21^st century, people might hope that modern medicine will soon eliminate all diseases and they can live in a disease-free world.

To understand whether mankind will enter a disease-free world, we need to examine, and reflect on, the functions of medicine and the causes of diseases. The two main functions of medicine are to prevent diseases and to treat diseases and injuries. What causes diseases? There are mainly nine causes: 1) biological pathogens, such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, mycoplasma, chlamydia, and parasites including protozoans; 2) defective or mutated genes that underlie hereditary diseases or cause new hereditary diseases; 3) tumors and disorders in immune systems; 4) metabolic disorders; 5) dysfunction in the central nervous system regarding psychological activities; 6) injuries caused by physical and chemical factors; 7) toxic substances; 8) factors associated with long-term overuse or improper use of tissues or organs; 9) aging. To eradicate all diseases, mankind needs to master the knowledge and expertise to prevent and cure diseases caused by all these nine types of cause. Although rapid development in our understanding of human body’s physiology and pathology as well as our expanding toolkits for making new medicines bring mankind closer to the eradication of all diseases than ever before, there are still many obstacles to be overcome in the long road to a disease-free world.

The aim of this chapter is to examine the obstacles presented by the nine types of pathological cause, discuss potential solutions to those obstacles, review approaches in dealing with diseases due to different causes, and forecast technologies that might contribute to eradicating all diseases. The rest of the chapter is structured as follows: the next section focuses on diseases caused by biological pathogens, followed by a section on diseases caused by defective or mutated genes, tumors and immune disorders, and metabolic disorders; the fourth section considers mental disorders; the fifth section looks into injuries and poisoning; the sixth section examines issues associated with overuses and aging; the final section concludes the chapter.