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The
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) originated in
1906 with its founding law, the Pure Food and Drug
Act. The FDA is the oldest Consumer Protection
Agency in the nation.
On July 1,
1946 in Atlanta, Georgia, the Communicable Disease
Center was established…known today as the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The
American Public Health Association (APHA) is the
oldest, largest and most diverse organization of
public health professionals and has been working to
improve public health since 1872.
In 1995,
former President William Jefferson Clinton
proclaimed the first full week in April as National
Public Health Week (NPHW).
According
to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
approximately half of the 2 million deaths in the
United States each year could be prevented.
In July of
1970, the White House and Congress worked together
to establish the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in response to the growing public demand for
cleaner water, air and land.
A
person
born in the United States in 1900 could expect to
live to be nearly 50 years old. A person born in the
United States at the end of the 20th century could
expect to live to be 76 years old.
In
the past century, public health measures have
reduced tooth decay and tooth loss among children
and adults through widespread fluoridation of
drinking water.
Public
health actions have eradicated smallpox, eliminated
polio in the Americas and controlled once-common
diseases such as measles, mumps and diphtheria
through the widespread use of vaccinations.
In 1972,
Congress passed a bill sponsored by Senator Hubert
H. Humphrey (D.Minn.) to create the Special
Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants,
and Children (WIC). The WIC program was created as a
two year pilot program by an amendment to the Child
Nutrition Act of 1966.
Harris
County, Texas earned the title “Rabies Capitol” in
the United States with 486 confirmed cases of animal
rabies in 1953.
Tuberculosis,
commonly referred to as TB, has infected human
beings since before the time of the ancient
Egyptians. In the 17th century, Dr. Silvius, better
known as Franciscus de la Boe, coined
the disease
"tuberculosis" after the lesions ( tubercles) found
in infected patients.
In 1939,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped to establish the
National Foundation of Infantile Paralysis, which
later became known as the March of Dimes. That is
why FDR is pictured is on the dime.
In
1843, hand washing was proven
to be key in preventing the spread of germs.
Today, hand washing remains the most effective
method of disease prevention.
Florence
Nightingale is often regarded as the founder of
modern nursing.
Cigarette
smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in
the United States. Current trends show that tobacco
use will cause more than 10 million deaths annually
by 2020.
West Nile
Virus, a mosquito-borne disease, was first
identified in the United States in 1999. The disease
began spreading across the nation and was confirmed
in Harris County, Texas in 2002.
The
influenza pandemic of 1918 (Spanish Flu) killed more
people than World War I, at somewhere between 20 and
40 million people. The epidemic was so severe that
the average life
span in the U. S. was depressed by
10 years.
The United
States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
was created when President Jimmy Carter signed the
Department of Education Organization Act into law on
October 17, 1979. It split the Department of Health,
Education and Welfare (HEW) into the Department of
Health and Human Services and the United States
Department of Education. Both began operation on May
4, 1980.
The
American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA) was
founded in 1935 as a scientific/educational,
not-for-profit public service association. The
association provides services primarily to public
agencies engaged in mosquito control, mosquito
research and related activities.
The
National Strategy for Homeland Security and the
Homeland Security Act of 2002 mobilized our nation
to secure the homeland from terrorist attacks. |
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