Health of the Commonwealth

“The history of medicine in Pennsylvania is no less vital to understanding the state’s past than is its political or industrial history,” writes James Higgins in The Health of the Commonwealth, his overview of medicine and public health in the state. Covering the outbreak of yellow fever in 1793 through the 1976 Legionnaire’s Disease epidemic, and the challenges of the present day, he shows how Pennsylvania has played a central role in humanity’s understanding of—and progress against—disease.

Higgins provides close readings of specific medical advances—for instance, scientists at the University of Pittsburgh discovered the polio vaccine—and of disease outbreaks, like AIDS. He examines sanitation and water purification efforts, allopathic medicine and alternative therapies, and the building of the state’s tuberculosis sanitaria. Higgins also describes Native American and pre-modern European folk medicine, the rise of public health in the state, and women’s roles in both folk and scientific medicine. 

The Health of the Commonwealth places Pennsylvania’s unique contribution to the history of public health and medicine in a larger narrative of health and disease throughout the United States and the world.

„Istoria medicinei in Pennsylvania nu este mai putin vitala pentru intelegerea trecutului statului decat este istoria sa politica sau industriala”, scrie James Higgins in The Health of the Commonwealth, prezentarea sa generala asupra medicinei si sanatatii publice in stat. Acoperind focarul de febra galbena din 1793 prin epidemia de boala a legionarului din 1976 si provocarile din prezent, el arata cum Pennsylvania a jucat un rol central in intelegerea umanitatii - si progresul impotriva - bolii. progrese - de exemplu, oamenii de stiinta de la Universitatea din Pittsburgh au descoperit vaccinul impotriva poliomielitei - si a focarelor de boli, cum ar fi SIDA.