Disease, Health and Medicine: Georgia and the Congo in 1959

Georgia

Next Stop: Georgia

Disease, medicine and health found in the Georgia in 1959.

Healthcare System

Diseases

Hospitals

Poliomyelitis

Measles

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

Other Facts

Gonorrhea and Syphillis

• Steady increase in bacterial STDs rather than viral STDs.

• Shift in affected age groups.

• The rate of paralysis and death due to polio increased during this time.

• Leads to the increase in research of Poliomyelitis, which leads to the development of vaccines

- The rate of infection doubled in men and nearly tripled in women.

• Previously, the high number of cases made Measles a significant cause.

• However by the late 1950's, measles-related deaths decreased tremendously.

• Medicare legislation was beginning to be discussed in the late 1950’s
• Medicare and Medicaid would enable the elderly and the less fortunate to be covered for health insurance
• “Golden age” up until the end of the 1950’s with great disease eradication and great advances in vaccines and other medication

• By the late 1950’s, the US hospitals employed more people than the steel industry, automobile industry, and interstate railroads
• 1 out of every 8 American’s was admitted as an inpatient annually
• According to the Social Security Administration, American hospitals were “the envy of the world” by 1960
• 70 percent of the population had health insurance at the time, but less than half of the elderly did

The most obvious symptom is the spots of rash that appears throughout the body

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Diseases were less prominent in Georgia in 1959 due to the presence of vaccinations and preventive medicine

Medicine

• One important difference between the U.S and the Congo in terms of medicine was that the U.S had some kind of health care system. Therefore, Georgians had access to modern hospitals, doctors, and medicine.
• Pharmaceutical innovation rose in the late 1950s and 1960s, making for a healthier public, according to Methuselah's Medicine.
• The credibility of the FDA, Food and Drug Administration rose in 1960 with the approval of the birth control pill. Clearly the United States was advancing in the field of medicine.

First Stop: The Congo

Disease, medicine and health found in the Congo in 1959.

Healthcare System

Diseases

• Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo: Congo had one of the best "best medical infrastructure in tropical Africa"

Poliomyelitis

"Polio"

• Caused by an infection with the poliovirus.

• 5% : Fever, muscle weakness, nausea, vomiting

• 2% : Partial or full paralysis

Sleeping Sickness

• Causes swelling of the brain, fever, itchiness, confusion, and trouble sleeping.

• Major cause of repression of the economic and cultural development of Central Africa.

Hospitals

Healers

HIV-1

Strains of HIV viruses are very closely related to strains of the SIV viruses that affect the Western Lowland Gorrillas.

Mass injection campaigns to treat diseases in the Congo was mainly responsible for the spread of HIV-1

HIV-1

• 135 territories in the Congo
• Rural surgical center, a maternity ward, a prenatal ward and an infant welfare center.
• 2,041 hospitals
• close to 97K beds- an average of 64 beds per 10K people
• 525K people received hospital treatment in 1959

• Had many people who specialized as “healers”
• The Congo government supports the study of herbs and they have been found to heal diseases such as malaria.
• The World Health Organization now supports the study of healers and their medicines

Works Cited

Medicine

HIV/AIDS

The Treatment of Polio

• Dr. Albert Sabin developed a polio vaccination in the late 1950s, and came to be known as the "Sabin vaccine".
• However, prior to the vaccination via needles, there existed an oral vaccine.
• This oral polio vaccine was administered to the masses in the Congo.
• The vaccine was produced within the kidneys of monkeys and it wasn't long before the monkeys would pass on a very dangerous virus on to the unsuspecting Congolese, and eventually, the world.

• The first documented case of HIV was that of a Congolese man in 1959. His blood samples were preserved and in 1994, scientists discovered the first signs of a human being HIV+ traced back to this one man.
• The HIV/AIDS epidemic really began in Africa, in the Congo, and quickly spread to the world.
• Unfortunately for most of the Congolese affected by AIDS, no medicine or treatment existed at the time to aid the symptoms or effectively treat it.
• Life expectancy in the Congo barely reached 50 years of age, and the advent of HIV/AIDS may have decreased that number significantly.

Sleeping Sickness

• "Sleeping Sickness" is also known as trypanosomiasis.
• Sleeping sickness can be cured. In the U.S today, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, most sleeping sickness is treated with pentamidine.
• However, without treatment, sleeping sickness is fatal.
• Once again, no such treatment existed during the early 1960s for sleeping sickness in the Congo.
• Ironically, once the sleeping sickness treatments were being developed, it was the Belgians that administered it to the people in the Congo.

Curtis, Tom. "THE ORIGIN OF AIDS." Curtis: The Origin of AIDS. University of Wollongong, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

"DPDx - Laboratory Identification of Parasitic Diseases of Public Health Concern." CDC. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

"Funny Video of a Kid Crying When Getting His Shots!!!!(:." YouTube. YouTube, 23 July 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Kisangani, Emizet F., F. Scott Bobb, and F. Scott Bobb. Historical Dictionary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow, 2010. Print.

"Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV)." Global Polio Eradication Initiative Polio and Prevention The Vaccines. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2014.

"Parasites - African Trypanosomiasis (also Known as Sleeping Sickness)." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 Aug. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

"Researchers Trace First HIV Case to 1959 in the Belgian Congo." CNN. Cable News Network, 3 Feb. 1998. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Schnittker, Jason, and George Karandinos. "Methuselah's Medicine: Pharmaceutical Innovation and Mortality in the United States, 1960-2000." Methuselah's Medicine: Pharmaceutical Innovation and Mortality in the United States, 1960-2000. Ideas.org, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

"Sleeping Sickness in Congo." BTC Homepage. Belgian Development Agency, 17 Dec. 2012. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Stevens, Rosemary A., PhD. "HealthCare in the Early 1960s." HealthCare Financing Review 18.2 (1996): 11-22. Web. 1 Apr. 2014.

Steverding, Dietmar. "The History of African Trypanosomiasis." The History of African Trypanosomiasis. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 12 Feb. 2008. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

"Welcome to Immunopaedia." Welcome to Immunopaedia. Immunopedia.org, 2010. Web. 01 Apr. 2014.

Disease, Health and Medicine: Georgia and the Congo in 1959

Josh Bainnson, Jennifer Park, Amanda Troendle