Deck 2: History and Development of Public Health

Question 1

Why were early public health efforts focused on ports and large cities?

Answer 1

Ports were a focus because passengers and crews arriving on ships could bring infectious diseases, such as cholera and yellow fever. Large cities were also the focus of public health measures because of dense living conditions among immigrants and the poor and the presence of businesses such as slaughterhouses, tanneries, skin dressers, glue boilers, and others that used animal parts and produced toxic wastes and noxious fumes.

Question 2

How did the Civil War contribute to a greater awareness of the effects of epidemic disease?

Answer 2

Many Civil War soldiers had infectious diseases and many died from the contraction of an infectious disease, not from war wounds. Appalling sanitary conditions on the battlefield as well as in prisoner-of-war camps resulted in two thirds of the 360,000 Union soldier deaths caused by infectious diseases. This war-related health issue led to increased awareness of infectious diseases within the United States and efforts to improve sanitation.

Question 3

What were some of the major influences the Great Depression had in regard to the U.S. public health system?

Answer 3

A major stimulus to the development of public health practice came with the Social Security Act of 1935 in response to the Great Depression, a time of extreme crisis. During the Depression, vast numbers of people faced poverty, unemployment, sickness, and hunger. The Social Security Act was America's first broad-based social welfare legislation, providing old-age benefits, unemployment insurance, and public health services. Title V of the act established a program of grants to states for maternal and child health services, and Title VI expanded financing of the Public Health Service and allotted grants to states to assist them in developing public health services.

Question 4

What is the benefit of certification for public health workers?

Question 5

What is the importance of the list of 10 essential services developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)?

Question 6

After World War II, what factors accounted for the shift in leading causes of death in the United States from infectious diseases to chronic diseases?