Harvard School of Public Health - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

Page 27 text:

Emphasis on infectious diseases has other justi¬ fications. The public pronouncements by eminent people to the effect that infectious diseases have been conquered are, unfortunately, quite inaccurate and misleading. The process of evolution has not stopped. The generation times of microorganisms are measured in minutes not in decades. The rapid emergence of genetically altered drug-resistant strains of microbial pathogens and of pesticide- resistant disease-transmitting arthropods can be cited to illustrate this important point. More than one hundred viruses hitherto unknown have been recognized in the past few years as pathogenic for man. Furthermore, the Cleveland family study strik¬ ingly emphasizes the importance of infectious dis¬ ease in technologically advanced urban societies to¬ day. . . . Infectious disease accounted for more than half of the considerable amount of illness that took place in this cross section of American city dwellers receiving medical care of high quality by contem¬ porary standards . . . A further reason for renewing the emphasis on prevention of infectious diseases lies in the fact that as a consequence of the flood of new knowledge, the responsibility for preparing skilled people in this field is shifting from the professional schools of medicine, veterinary medicine and nursing to the graduate schools of public health. While stu¬ dents in the basic courses of the professional schools are being familiarized with more and more of the newer subjects such as molecular biology and bio¬ physics, they are receiving less and less instruction in diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infectious diseases. Our nation must increasingly depend on its schools of public health to provide the post¬ graduate instruction to physicians and other mem¬ bers of the health professions so that they will acquire a thorough understanding of infectious dis¬ ease in man and will be able to deal intelligently with community and national programs for reduc¬ ing this major cause of human suffering, disability and death.” John C. Snyder The Education of Health Experts for the 197O ' s by John C. Snyder, M.D., LL.D., F.A.P.H.A. American Journal of Public Health, Part II, Vol. 56, Number 1, 67-73, January 1966. John C. Snyder, A.B., M.D., LL.D. Dr. Herbert Ley and friend 23

Page 26 text:

MT CROC OS M dedicated to rhe Lomlm Water Comb P11 i S ) UVD H AS A.NO COMDK8 ANJ3 Cmim C rf J MONSTEH SOUP (umm.-nljf catipcl TH A 1KS WATER , u CoTfect Te Tf.cfr ttoM ©( th jt lorfcious .sTujp doU J out to US Smith, Kline, and French— Philadelphia Museum of Art ... The surface has hem scratched... Tn the next decade the School plans to broaden the Department of Microbiology both in its teaching and research, to include new programs in investigation of microbiologic factors in the eti¬ ology of infant mortality, congenital malforma¬ tions, cancer, mental illness and other degenerative diseases characteristic of aging. The Department will be an integral part of the Center for Preven¬ tion of Infectious Disease under the Directorship of Dr. Thomas H. Weller. Some of the reasons for the emphasis on infectious disease are indicated by the following excerpts from the Delta Omega address: Infectious agents have become prime suspects among possible causes of several serious diseases previously assumed to be non-infectious, diseases of major public health importance in the highly industrialized nations. That certain forms of cancer, mental illness and diseases of old age may prove to be preventable has been under-scored by recent discoveries. One can cite evidence such as the sim¬ ian virus which can alter human cells in tissue cul¬ ture and produce neoplasms in animals, the role of the cytomegaloviruses in causing mental retarda¬ tion, and the fatty degeneration induced by the lipovirus in human cells in continuous culture . . . the surface has been scratched, but new vistas of knowledge await the skilled scientists who are in¬ vestigating the role of infectious agents in the chronic, degenerative, and neoplastic diseases of 22 man.

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Robert Chang, Edward Murray, John Snyder, William Vinson, Herbert Ley, John Peters, and Samuel Bell. ... What is the next horizon... ? nphe prediction made in 1965 that infectious dis- eases would retain their importance has rung true. It is now 1975. Having demonstrated the viral etiology of leukemia and developed a specific vac¬ cine the old question of cost-benefit has arisen. Will the cost of vaccination be worth the benefit achieved? This question can be faced with some assurance now that five years of experience with broad spectrum vaccines against the common en¬ teric and respiratory viruses is behind us. The con¬ cept of geographical vaccination is well established. For instance, this year the 200 members of the 1976 class of the school of Public Health each re¬ ceived sufficient Boston Mix” vaccine for them¬ selves and families in the summer. They arrive here protected from faculty and employees. An attempt is being made to determine wild (that is non- Boston) strains they carry in order to protect the faculty from them. The School of Public Health has now been using its new building for five years. The place of the Microbiology department has been permanently established. No one enters the building without an awareness of this importance. This stems from an event in 1971 which occurred during the trial of vaccines against one of the so-called atypical” mycobacteria. A large aerosol of viable organisms was inadvertently exhausted into the recirculating heating-cooling system. Despite every effort to filter W. Paul Reagan them out or kill them with ultra-violet a few of these hardy organisms still persist. Therefore no one can enter the building without specific chemo¬ therapy or prior vaccination using the new non- cellular hypersensitivity transfer antigen. So it goes. Although man has reached the moon and looks beyond he is still constrained by the tiniest of organisms here at home. What is the next horizon? There is some evidence that the homely amoeba produces a substance protecting arteries from the aging process. Who can predict the future anyway? W. Paul Reagan 24