Public Health Office Providing community health services based on health promotion, disease prevention and education.

Public Health History

History of Public Health	Richland County Public Health History
Public Health Today

Public Health has been around a long time. Although little is known about the prehistoric origins of personal or community health, we know of an account in Leviticus about 1500 B.C. that probably represents the first written health code in the world. The writing dealt with a variety of personal and community health responsibilities including cleanliness of the body, protection against contagious disease, isolation of lepers, sanitation of campsites, waste disposal and protection of food and water.

During classical civilization, around 400 to 500 A.D., the Romans placed a lot of emphasis on engineering achievement to provide safe water and prevent disease, some of the drainage systems are still in use to day.

From about 400 A.D. to 1500 A.D., the Middle Ages (Dark Ages), there was a strong reaction to anything Roman, including sanitary codes. Little attention was paid to public health or the prevention of disease. It was considered immoral to view one's own body: so people seldom bathed. Diets were poor and insufficient attention was paid to food preparation or preservation. As a result, the spread of disease was a common problem, and conditions such as leprosy and bubonic plague wiped out a large portion of the world's population.

Leprosy spread from Egypt to Europe, and gave rise to laws governing movement and conduct of those affected. They were compelled to warn others of their presence by crying out that they were unclean. This isolation brought about rapid death, and although very harsh it almost eradicated leprosy in Europe by the sixteenth century.

Bubonic plague or Black Death was next. From Asia, the plague spread across the Middle East, Egypt, and Europe. During the 1340's more than 13 million people died from the plague in China alone; total mortality was over 60 million. Ships and travelers coming from infected areas were oftened quarantined; persons had to stop at designated areas outside ports and remain healthy for two months before the ship could enter the port. This was the first quarantining measure in history. The concept of incubation was understood, although the role of vectors carrying disease was not recognized.

Following the Dark Ages came a renewed emphasis on science and reason. England established the first sanitary legislation and established a national vaccination board. This was followed by a general Board of Health in England in 1848. These measures were especially significant since smallpox, cholera, typhoid, and tuberculosis had reached epidemic proportions.

Emergence of Boards of Health: In colonial America, smallpox was especially devastating to both natives and settlers. With so many people dying, the recording of vital records was essential. In 1639 the Massachusetts colony ordered all births and deaths to be recorded. In 1701 laws requiring isolation of smallpox were passed. In 1799 the first Board of Health was formed in Boston with Paul Revere as its chairman. Paul Revere, among other professions, was a dentist.

Between 1800 and 1850 epidemics of smallpox, yellow fever, cholera, typhoid, and typhus spread over the United States
In 1859 a report of the Sanitary Commission of Massachusetts (the Shattuck Report) called for the establishment of local boards of health and included the major concepts and activities of today's public health practice. Over the next half-century, state and local health departments and boards of health were established across the country.

During the last half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century the struggle in public health was in infectious disease. Strategies included major sanitation measures, the development of effective vaccines and mass immunizations. The struggle resulted in effective intervention and today, only one percent of people under the age of 75 die from infectious disease.

The leading causes of death in the 1900s were influenza, pneumonia, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal infections. Acute disease accounted for a death rate of 580 out of every 100,00 persons. Today only 30 people out of 100,000 die from infectious diseases each year.

These gains were not achieved so much through treatment and curative medicine as through improved sanitation, the pasteurization of milk and the control of infectious disease.

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Richland County Health and Human Services
Community Services Building - 221 West Seminary Street Richland Center, WI 53581
Phone: 608-647-8821 FAX: 608-647-6611

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