I'm a Scientist, Get me out of here! - Kenya

The first doctor on record is Hesy-Ra from Ancient Egypt (2700BC). Image by James Edward Quibell.

Health is all about how well our minds and bodies function. As this is pretty important, people have been studying health for many thousands of years.

Child receiving a measles vaccine. Image by Julien Harneis.

The earliest doctor on record was Hesy-Ra way back in Ancient Egypt (2700 BC). Way back then people believed that evil gods and demons were responsible for illnesses and often magic was used as part of treatment. Since then scientists have developed an understanding of health and it’s now a massive area of research.

Many health scientists research diseases, helping to save and improve millions of lives. Take the scientist Edward Jenner, who developed a vaccine against smallpox, wiping out the disease world wide. Vaccines also helped reduce other serious diseases, such as: polio, measles and tetanus.

Despite the progress in health there are still big problems for scientists to tackle, including cancer, malaria, HIV and malnutrition.