Public Health Movement

Trattner chapter 7

Early Views of Cause of Disease

Result of God’s punishment for sin and could be cured by more moral behavior

Result of dirt and filth and could be cured by more clean or sanitary environments

Sanitary Movement

Influenced by similar efforts in England U.S. Sanitary Commission during Civil War 1866 New York Metropolitan Health Law 1872 American Public Health Association These groups were opposed because cleaning

up slums would cost tax money, and rich people owned and profited by slum dwellings

Discovery of Germs

Came in 1880s and 1890s Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch Found causes of disease in germs – typhoid,

leprosy, malaria, tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, tetanus, bubonic plague, dysentery

Personal factor in contagion

Public Health Movement

Importance of education Involvement of social workers Richard Cabot hired social workers in 1905 at

Massachusetts General Hospital Linkage of disease and poverty

Fight Against Tuberculosis

Wasting disease that attacked lungs Killer of those between 15-44 Spread through contagion and thus through

families and close contact Studies done in early 1900s by Charity

Organization Societies Educational campaigns emphasizing

prevention

Antithesis of Social Darwinism Disease considered a disgrace, but laws for

mandatory reporting instituted Hospitals instituted because of futility of home

treatment New York developed publicly funded hospitals Sanitariums also developed

Public Health Approach

Has moved on to control of other infectious diseases: diphtheria, venereal diseases, AIDS

Environmental health Well baby clinics Prenatal care Aims at broad population health