Eduqas GCSE History: Component 2 Option 2F — Changes in Health and Medicine in Britain, c.500 to the present day

What is included

What this course covers

• Topic 1 — Causes of illness and disease

  • 1.1 – Poverty, famine, warfare and lack of hygiene: the Black Death and the Great Plague
  • 1.2 – Industrialisation and the incidence of cholera and typhoid in the nineteenth century
  • 1.3 – The spread of bacterial and viral diseases in the twentieth century

• Topic 2 — Attempts to prevent illness and disease

  • 2.1 – Early prevention of disease: alchemy, soothsayers and medieval doctors
  • 2.2 – Science and the prevention of disease: Edward Jenner and vaccination
  • 2.3 – The influence and spread of inoculation since 1700
  • 2.4 – The discovery of antibodies and developments in the field of bacteriology

• Topic 3 — Attempts to treat and cure illness and disease

  • 3.1 – Traditional medieval treatments: herbal medicines, barber surgeons, use of leeches
  • 3.2 – Joseph Lister and antiseptics; James Simpson and anaesthetics
  • 3.3 – Marie Curie and radiation; Fleming, Florey and Chain and antibiotics
  • 3.4 – Barnard and transplant surgery; cancer treatment and surgery; alternative treatments

• Topic 4 — Advances in medical knowledge

  • 4.1 – Medieval medical ideas: alchemy, astrology and the theory of the four humours
  • 4.2 – Vesalius, Pare and Harvey in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
  • 4.3 – Nineteenth century advances: the germ theory, Pasteur and Koch
  • 4.4 – X-rays, ultrasound and MRI scans; the discovery of DNA and genetic research

• Topic 5 — Developments in patient care

  • 5.1 – The church and monasteries to the mid sixteenth century; the roles of voluntary charities
  • 5.2 – Endowed hospitals in the late eighteenth century; Florence Nightingale and nursing
  • 5.3 – The Liberal reforms; the Beveridge Report of 1944 and provision under the NHS after 1948

• Topic 6 — Developments in public health and welfare

  • 6.1 – Public health and hygiene from medieval society to the seventeenth century
  • 6.2 – Industrialisation and public health; Edwin Chadwick and Victorian improvements
  • 6.3 – Housing and pollution; twenty-first century campaigns, fitness drives, healthy eating

• Topic 7 — Historic site assessed 2026 and 2027: Letchworth Garden City C.1903 to the present day

  • 7.1 – The historical context
  • 7.2 – The main features of Letchworth Garden City C.1903 to the present day
  • 7.3 – The significance of Letchworth Garden City C.1903 to the present day

• Topic 8 — Historic site assessed 2028 and 2029: the city of Norwich and the impact of the plague between 1349 and 1667

  • 8.1 – The historical context
  • 8.2 – Methods use to combat the plague in Norwich between 1349 and 1667
  • 8.3 – The consequences of outbreaks of plague in Norwich

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