![]() Religious and societal beliefs influenced approaches to explaining and attempting to control communicable disease by sanitation, town planning, and provision of medical care. The need for organized health protection grew as part of the development of community life, and in particular, urbanization and social reforms. Public health evolved through trial and error and with expanding scientific medical knowledge, at times controversial, often stimulated by war and natural disasters. The prevention of disease in populations revolves around defining diseases, measuring their occurrence, and seeking effective interventions. Epidemic and endemic infectious disease stimulated thought and innovation in disease prevention on a pragmatic basis, often before the causation was established scientifically. The history of public health is a story of the search for effective means of securing health and preventing disease in the population. These strategies evolved from scientific knowledge and trial and error, but are associated with cultural and societal conditions, beliefs and practices that are important in determining health status and curative and preventive interventions to improve health. All societies must face the realities of disease and death, and develop concepts and methods to manage them. We visualize through the eyes of the past how societies conceptualized and dealt with disease. History provides a perspective to develop an understanding of health problems of communities and how to cope with them. In the modern era, James Lind’s clinical trial of various dietary treatments of British sailors with scurvy in 1756 and Edward Jenner’s 1796 discovery that cowpox vaccination prevents smallpox have modern-day applications as the science and practices of nutrition and immunization are crucial influences on health among the populations of developing and developed countries. The history of public health is derived from many historical ideas, trial and error, the development of basic sciences, technology, and epidemiology. Biomedical and social sciences, technology, and public health organization are critical as public health faces old and new health challenges. ![]() Immunology, social security, health insurance, and health promotion expanded the scope and effectiveness of global health. New social, political, and economic reforms in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, contributing to sanitation, social reform, and improved nutrition and medical care, led to improved longevity and quality of life in the twentieth century. The rise of cities, the Renaissance, and rapid changes in agriculture, trade, and industry all contributed to public health. Hospital organization and university training for physicians developed during Islamic and Christian periods. ![]() Roman sanitary engineering and military medicine made pivotal contributions. Ideals of “sanctity of human life” and “improve the world” in Mosaic Law, linked with Greek traditions of healthful nutrition and lifestyle, are relevant in modern public health. Concepts of preventing infection, malnutrition, and sanitation have existed since ancient times.
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