Public Health In The 18th Century

In this day and age, there are millions of pharmaceuticals out there for all kinds of diseases and conditions, but where did all of this start? The creation of medicines most likely started when people discovered the healing properties plants contained. Today, civilization has the knowledge and technology to extract elements from plants to produce more chemically engineered medicines. The real question is how did medicines develop from mashing up leaves in order to lessen an infuriating rash to just popping a pill to nurse or illness? Medicines evolved by the scientific method: series of research and experiments. During the Elizabethan era, research and experimentation attained a renewed interest.

In Elizabethan times many deadly diseases had spread such as the plague, smallpox and typhoid, but the causes and cures had yet to be discovered. Due to bad hygiene because of open sewers and rubbish dumped in the river, this caused disease to easily spread as it was a natural habitat for rats, fleas and lice. The plague was carried by the fleas living in the fur of rats. As a result of this one third of the population died. Elizabethan physicians believed that medicine was basic, they had no idea why and how people were getting so sick, treatments were based from superstitions and guesses so they used a mixture of herbs for cures and also believed leeches would ‘suck

Over time, the practice of medicine and diseases have been vastly altered. Each day, we discover more and more to aid us for the future. But back in the Elizabethan Era, medicine wasn’t as advanced as it is now. With a simple tap of a button, we can now learn which bones are broken or why your chest is hurting. It hasn’t always been like this, though.

Healthcare During the American Revolution INTRODUCTION There were many problems faced during the American Revolution. One of these many problems faced was the fact that there was poor health care. According to U.S. History, most physicians and caregivers that treated patients did not attend medical school and most of the doctors that did attend medical school, attended in Europe (Rorke, n.d.). The New York University of Libraries observes that in the barracks, there was a high chance of disease due to many factors. It has also claimed that the medicine was not as advanced as it is today and that the treatments for many injuries and illnesses had not been discovered yet (Health and Medicine in Revolutionary America., n.d.).

Medieval medicine was rooted in Ancient Greek practices. In 65 A.D., a Greek writer, Discorides, wrote a book, Material Medica. The book is about medical use of over five-hundred different plants. The book is translated into Hebrew and Arabic. Doctors in the Early Modern Era knew very little, and they used plants as the most important care and/or treatment. Due to unsanitary places and tools, many different diseases spread around Europe. Life was challenging during the Early Modern Era because of many diseases(Alchin). During the 1500s- 1600s, diseases overtook many people because doctors knew little, medicine was unknown, and there were many causes.

In American industrial cities, late 1800s, Poor neighborhood were not the best place to live. With poor living conditions, poor sanitation and crowded housing, many epidemics of infectious disease spread into the poor population and touched even the wealthy class. Cities such as New York were crowded and workers were living in tenements, which were often cramped, poorly lit and poorly aerated. Moreover, these tenements lacked of adequate plumbing, therefore waste was flooding in the public streets. Streets was crowded of waste and garbage. Population was poorly nourished and has a poor life hygiene like water pollution and poisoned food and milk. Accordingly, infectious disease was the common death reason. Big cities had known outbreaks of

The Greeks went even further, introducing the concepts of medical diagnosis, prognosis, and advanced medical ethics. The Hippocratic Oath, still taken by doctors up to today, was written in Greece in the 5th century BCE. The germ theory of disease in the 19th century led to cures for many infectious diseases. Public health measures were developed especially in the 19th century as the rapid growth of cities required systematic sanitary measures. Advanced research centers opened in the early 20th century, mid-20th century was characterized by new biological treatments, such as antibiotics. These advancements, along with developments in chemistry, genetics, and lab technology led to modern medicine. Medicine was heavily professionalized in the 20th century, and new careers opened to women as nurses and as physicians. The 21st century is characterized by highly advanced research involving numerous fields of science.

The improvement of medicine over the course of the human successes gave great convenience to the people of today. Science has cured and prevented many illnesses from occurring and is on its way to cure some of the most dreadful and harmful illnesses. As the world modernizes due to the industrialization, so does the ways of medicine. Some cures are approached by chance, some, through intense, scientific measures.

Early 1900 Treatment begins in the U.S. Physicians come organized to make the American Medical Association.

Since 1878, the US Public Health System has been collecting information on infectious conditions for the purpose of early identification and control of massive outbreaks, including, when necessary, instituting quarantines

These public health disasters were related to the congested and unsanitary food supply, sewage disposal,

Healthcare in early America was not based on scientific medicine and healthcare facilities were limited to “at home” care. The view of health care was focused on epidemics of acute infections related to poor food, water, housing and sanitation resulting limited to untrained physicians an d nurses that were inadequate to provide sustainable life saving care (Williams & Torrens, 2008). Since health care was limited to the home or charity, very little progress was made to on the prevention of diseases. During the early 1800’s towns like North Carolina had no way to combat the spread of diseases like small pox, therefore their only option was to introduce maritime quarantine that would later lay the groundwork for advances in control measures for epidemic diseases (Watson, 2013). These measures helped limit the spread of the disease but failed to address disease management. However the advancement of medical schools such as Harvard

PO: Increase public participation in preventative health measures and other activities designed to lower the spread or occurrence of disease.

Another thing that was happening in the 1830s was the religious and cultural practices and the forbidden conducts; during this period it was notable that people were quarantine for epidemics, sexual prohibitions to minimize illness spread and dietary restrictions to minimize nutrition illnesses. The hygiene movement (1840 – 1870) brought, the sanitary conditions as the foundation for improvement. The contagion control (1880 – 1940) in which immunology and outbreak investigations began. Between the 1950s and mid-1980s, the

The Middle Ages were tough times when it came to disease and medicine. There were numerous types of sickness and disease that flooded Europe during the Middle Ages. Not helping the situation, the medicinal knowledge of the people of Europe of the time was not up to par. Some of the diseases and illness that were running rampant during these times were pneumonia, leprosy, and the plague. The middle ages were a time of great suffering and death because of the abundant disease and lack of knowledge of the spread and treatments.