History of Public Health

Introduction

Methods of preventing disease go back many centuries. Concepts of disease were crude and often based on anecdote. Some recommendations and practices were ineffective, if not even harmful to health such as bloodletting.

In the mid-1800's there was a hygiene movement, particularly in the UK, with focus of improvements of cleanness and well-being of the poor. Additionally, at the end of the 19th century germ theory became accepted.

There are 4 outcomes to take from this course:

1. Explain the evolution of concepts about cause and prevention of disease
2. Understand the importance of studying the factors associated with outcomes in a systematic way in human populations.
3. Discuss some of the major historical figures and events that played a role in evolution of public health and epidemiology
4. Describe the overall structure of the public health system in the US today

Early Concepts of Disease

10,000 years ago when humans were hunter-gatherers and lived in small, nomadic groups accumulating waste and contamination wasn't a problem. Early concepts of disease revolved around superstition, myths and religion (bad spirits, Pandora's box, etc).

The agricultural revolution provided more secure supply of food and enable expansion of population. People often lived off one or two crops, often lacking protein and vitamins. The domesticated animals provided food and labor, but also carried diseases that could be transmitted to humans. Waste accumulation attracted rodents and insect vectors and with people living in larger groups there was a greater opportunity for transmission of diseases.

The first concept of disease not founded on superstition was the Hippocratic corpus; A Greek concept that disease is caused by an unbalance of the environment or natural forces, and Blood, Bile, Phlegm, and Melancholy must be kept equal within the body. Although the concept clearly incorrect by today's medical standards, Greek doctors would prescribe changes in diet and lifestyle. It also became the rational for bloodletting, which continued for many centuries despite lack of evidence.

The Bubonic Plague

The bubonic plague caused by a bacteria that lives in the intestines of fleas. Fleas were the vector and rats were a reservoir for the bacteria that could easily transmit the disease. Occasionally, an infected flea could jump to a human and infect them directly. Causing dark, tender, swollen nodules. Symptoms also included headache, and delirium and was fatal in about 60% of cases.

Starting in 1347 Europe experienced waves of the plague which lasted until the late 1700's. It was believed to have originated in Asia and traveled along trade routes to the black sea.

The most popular explanation was that it was caused by miasmas - invisible vapors which emanated from swamps or cesspools and floated around in the air where they could be inhaled. One pope kept fires burning on both sides of the room to counter miasmas. Plague doctors kept herbs and flowers in a beak-like mask to ward of miasmas. Of course these were all ineffective as it was spread by flea bites. In a sense the real cause of transmission was population density and waste stagnation, which attracted rats with the fleas that carried the plague. Later the pneumonic form of the plague caused people to cough up blood and could spread by inhalation.

One might blame the lack of preventative measures and knowledge about transmission on the primitive understanding of medicine, however this wasn't due to a lack of technology but the fact that humans had not come up with a structured way to think about disease. There were theories about how the plague spread and how to prevent it, but no tests were ever done through observation of large groups of people. The idea of studying groups of people to identify risk factors and disease outcomes had not yet evolved. The lack of a systematic way of testing possible associated between exposures and outcomes was the major factor that prevented advances in understanding the causes of disease and development of effected treatment/prevention.

The black plague still exists today, and kills a few thousand people every year due to anti-biotic resistant strains. However, when identified early it is curable.

Quarantine and Isolation

The concept of quarantine dates back to the early 1400's and the black death. In Italian Qaurintina means 40 days. Travelers and merchandise thought to have been exposed would isolate for a set period of time. This practice persisted until the 19th and 20th century. Isolation is separating someone who has the disease from the rest of the population, which was useful in cases like SARS where the infected is only contagious when symptoms are present. Quarantine is separating someone from the population who might have been exposed, e.g. COVID-19 since one could be contagious without symptoms.

Public Health in the US

Events in the US parallelled those of the UK as the population moved from an agricultural to an urban and industrial way of living.

• 1798: Congress passes the Act for the Relief of Sick and Disabled Seaman and authorizes the formation of US Marine Hospital Service (MHS), a forerunner of the Public Health Service. Seamen were taxed 20 cents per month to fund physicians and support the network of hospitals. The tax was abolished in 1884 and replaced with a levy on merchant ships, then after 1906 funds were allocated by congress.
• 1799: Castle Island in Boston Harbor was chosen as the temporary site for the first marine hospital. Dr. Thomas Welsh was named physician in charge.
• 1799: Boston establishes the first board of health and the first health department in the US. Paul Revere is named as the first health officer.
• 1800: Dr. Ben Waterhouse introduced smallpox vaccination to the US
• 1804: The Boston Marine Hospital is established in Charlestown, Boston. Dr. Ben Waterhouse was appointed physician in charge from 1807-1809
• 1842: MA Legislator Lemuel Shattuck established the first US system for recording births, deaths and marriages. This became the model for states across the Union. Among his contrubutions were a standard nomenclature for disease; establishment of a system for recording mortallity data by age, sex, occupation, socioeconomix level, smoking, and drinking.
• 1849: The MA legislature appointed a Sanitary Commision to prepare a plan for reporting a 'Sanitary Survey of the State' with Shattuck as Chief Commissioner and author. While well-recieved by the New England Journal of Medicine, the 50 recommendations in the report went ignored. 20 years later the Board of Health based their plans on Shattuck's recommendations.
• 1870: The Marine Hospital Service was reorganized to change the general character of the service. Medical officers, called surgeons, were required to pass entrance examinations and wear uniforms. In 1889 th medical officers were given titles and pay corresponding to the Army and Navy grades. The goal was to create a progessional, mobile health corps free from political favoritism to deal with health needs of a growing nation.
• 1874: MA State Board of Health instituted a voluntary plan for weekly reporting of disease by physicians.
• 1884: MA passes legislation requiring the reporting of "diseases dangerous to the public health" and imposes fines for not reporting.
• 1887: A "Hygienic Lab" was established at the marine hospital on Staten Island to aid in the diagnosis of infectious disease among passengers of incoming ships. It eventually moved to Washington DC and became the National Institutes of Health.
• 1891: The Immigration Act of 1891 required all immigrants entering US be given health examination by PHS physicians. All "idiots, insane persons, paupers or people suffering from disease and criminals" were excluded. Ellis island in New York Harbor was the largest inspection site.
• 1894: The first epidemic of polio strikes the US.