Unit 3.1 Impetus for Public Health Flashcards
(73 cards)
What is public health?
The health of the population as a whole, especially as monitored, regulated and promoted by the state. It is the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting human health through organised efforts and informed choices. It is about helping people to stay healthy and protecting them from threats to their health.
What were 5 reasons why many people died at a young age?
- Extreme high pollution - many factories - bad quality of health
- Cholera, many industrial diseases spread by dirt and waste - 1848-49 - 62,000 cholera death - 4 cholera epidemics in each decade
- Overpopulation - rife disease - when people got ill, it spread to others easily
- Around 55% was the death rate per 100 total births from maternal mortality
- Shared homes - bad quality housing - no kitchens - back to back housing - damp houses- badly fitted windows - communal privies - water supply contaminated by cesspits
What happened to the population? What happened in cities? What did this mean? Why?
-Population rose from 13 million to over 31 million between 1781 and 1871, and was 48 million in 1939
-Industrialisation created work in factories, mills and foundries and people flocked into the rapidly growing towns and cities to take advantage of job opportunities
-Meant that it was more crowded and lived in substandard housing with little by way of clean water
What happened to the death rate? Why? How many babies died before their 5th b day in??
Death rate fall:
-medical industry produced vaccine that prevented smallpox
-agricultural industry produced better quality food
-chemical industry produced cheap soap
-textiles produced cotton cloth that was cheap and easy to use
-1840s - Manchester 57% of babies died before fifth birthday
What happened to the birth rate? Why?
Birth rate rose:
-fewer died when young meant more people in twenties and thirties to have more babies
What happened to the marriage rate? Why?
Marriage rate rose:
-farmers employed fewer servants so men and women labourer could begin life together and marry earlier
-in industrial areas unskilled workers were replaced by skilled who had to work 7 year apprenticeship (could marry with no job)
What was the population of the UK that lived in towns in 1801, 1891, 1900?
-1801 - 33% of pop lived in towns, 72% by 1891
-1900 - 4/5 citizens were urban dwellers
-1801-1901 - 1mil to 6mil in pop in London - waste products multiplied
What was civil registration and when was it introduced? Who advocated for public heath reform? What did he do?
-Civil registration introduced in 1837 which stopped parishes from having to record births, deaths and marriages which was difficult because of a moving population, they were then listed as legal documents - revealed a young and fertile population in urban areas so that meant the birth rate was higher than death rate
-William Farr advocated for public health reform and drew attention to wide variations in mortality - supported miasma (smells caused disease) - produced statsitcs - insisted doctors register cause of disease not just fact of the death
3 ways how population change had an impact on the lives of people?
- Homes
- Cesspits
- Disease
What impact did population change have on homes?
-The rapid influx of people into towns and cities created poor housing bad fitted windows, communal privy no kitchens
-Back to back housing and cellar/attic dwellings were seen most frequently. Somebody else’s house Houses were typically built in a grid system.
-A huge number of families would occupy 1 house.
-Poorest lives in cellars/attics - water would leak through - damp - bad for lungs - little ventilation
What impact did population change have on cesspits?
-Most housing lacked sewerage or drainage. Instead, they shared a privy (communal toilet).
-Cesspits (area where toilet waste would be put) were emptied by ‘night-soil men’.
-Houses also lacked a clean water supply. Instead, water was supplied by a communal pump.
-However, some middle classes did have access to flushing toilets and running water in their own homes.
What impact did population change have on disease?
-The rapid population migration and poor living conditions resulted in epidemics.
-There were typhus (water borne) epidemics in 1837 and 1839; an outbreak in 1847 killed 10,000 people.
-Also influenza, scarlet fever, TB and measles.
-Typhoid and diarrhoea were common.
-Cholera.
-Diphtheria.
-industrial diseases
What 4 industrial diseases were rife?
- Tuberculosis - TB
- Cholera
- Typhus
- Typhoid
What are symptoms of tuberculosis? Actual cause of illness? Believed cause of illness? Treatments?
-cough that lasts more than 3 weeks - can cough up mucus/ blood
-exhaustion
-High temp/night sweats
-chest pain
-bacterium: Mycobacterium tuberculosis - contagious
-miasma until Koch proved otherwise
-antibiotics for at least 6 months
-vaccination
What are symptoms of typhus? Actual cause of illness? Believed cause of illness? Treatments then and now?
-Red rash
-Dry cough
-Headache
-Nausea and vomiting
-Joint and muscle pain
-Infected mites, fleas or lice
-Thought it was caused by hygiene or miasma
-Now:
Antibiotics
-Then:
Quarantine and isolation
Herbal remedies, blood letting
What are symptoms of typhoid? Actual cause of illness? Believed cause of illness? Treatments then and now?
-Headache and high temp
-Extreme tiredness and fatigue
-Diarrhoea
-Lose appetite
-Cause: Bacteria - Salmonella Typhi - spread by contaminated water and food
-Believed causes: miasma (bad air)
-Current treatments: course of antibiotic medicine and vaccines
-Past treatments: bloodletting, opiates and ammonia
History of epidemics of tuberculosis?
-Poor sanitation and living conditions meant that one in four deaths in Britain were caused by tuberculosis in the early 19th century
-There was an almost steady decline in the disease from 1912, as living and working conditions improved.
-17,000 in 1913, had fallen to around 5,000 in 1987
History of epidemics of typhus in Britain?
-18th century
-Came from napoleonic wars etc
-Came from the great famine (Irish people fleeing to England)
-1847 - Typhus epidemic = 30,000 people in
England and Wales died of typhus fever
History of epidemics of typhoid in Britain?
-16,000 yearly cases between 1838-1842 in London alone
-1882 - outbreak in wales - 42 people died in Bangor
Why did cholera epidemics have a great impact on the public?
-the high percentage of Fatalities amongst those contracting the disease (40-60%) and because of the speed with which it could strike
What were the cholera riots?
-There were 30 recorded ‘cholera Phobia’ in towns and cities throughout Britain
-In Liverpool, there were 8 street riots between May and June 1832. The rioters were protesting against the Medical men; they believed that some doctors were murdering cholera patients so that they could use their bodies for Dissections
-In Exeter, rioters objected to the burial of cholera victims in local graveyards. Victims were being buried hastily, possibly before they were dead, and without proper religious ceremony
-Pressure amongst people and politicians for reform was intense
What was gov reaction to cholera riots?
-In 1831, the government sent two medical Commissioners to Russia, where there had been an outbreak of cholera
-Board of Health was set up in 1831 - advised local government areas to set up their own Local Boards of Health - include magistrates, a clergyman, some householders and one or more medical men
-These local boards reported on the food, clothing and bedding of the poor, the ventilation of their dwellings, the number of people per room and the ways in which they kept clean and their behaviour
What advice was published by the Board of Health in response to cholera?
-Houses were to be whitewashed and lined - All infected furniture and clothing was to be Fumigated
-People with cholera were to be put in strict quarantine
-Food and flannel clothing were to be distributed to the poor
-Temporary fever hospitals were to be set up.
-gave advice in relation to to cholera and was made permanent in PHA 1848
What was the issue with the recommendations provided by the board of health?
-legality – What legal right did the boards have to insist that people co-operate with them?
-In 1832, temporary ‘Cholera Acts’ were passed to allow local authorities to enforce Some measures
-local action was haphazard. Local Boards of Health were temporary