[简答题]Exactly where we will stand in the long war against disease by the year 2050 is impossible to say. (46) But if developments in research maintain their current pace, it seems likely that a combination of improved attention to dietary and environmental factors, along with advances in gene therapy and protein targeted drugs, will have virtually eliminated most major classes of disease.
From an economic standpoint, the best news may be that these accomplishments .could be accompanied by a drop in health-care costs. (47) Costs may even fall as diseases ’are brought under control using pinpointed, short-term therapies now being developed. By 2050 there will be fewer hospitals, and surgical procedures will be largely restricted to the treatment of accidents and other forms of trauma. Spending on nonacute care, both in nursing facilities and in homes, will also fall sharply as more elderly people lead healthy lives until close to death.
One result of medicine’s success