Disease and health practices

Review a historic situation where our understanding of disease and health practices grew out of occupational health concerns. Choose your own topic, or select one from the learning activities readings, and be sure to include original research or a review of the original research that led to the discovery of negative health outcomes due to the environment’s influences.

Here are some topics which might be of interest, which are examples of how occupational health has led to a greater understanding of disease and better health practices:

  • Milk Maids (cow pox and Edward Jenner)
  • Waterbury Clock Company (the Radon/Radium Girls)
  • Marine Hospital Service (Public Health Service)
  • Edwin Chadwick (sanitation)
  • Louis Pasteur (greatly improved pre- and post-work conditions)
  • Upton Sinclair (Meat Inspection Act [1906] – came out of The Jungle)
  • World History Project – Public Health Timeline – https://worldhistoryproject.org/topics/public-health (Links to an external site.)

Your blog post should be 350 words in length with a minimum of two references required. Responses are encouraged but not required.

Requirements: .doc file

Answer preview

Several factors contributed to the wide success of the vaccine as developed by Jenner. Among them was the mass vaccination of farmers to prove its viability. The vaccine had to be tested on a large group of people at the same time to find the person with the right sequence of infections (Schrick et al., 2017). The ‘right’ sequence involved a condition of cowpox, which is shortly followed by smallpox, without a prior infection of smallpox in the individual’s early life. The vaccine was effective in most cases, and if an individual did not become immune after several inoculations, it was assumed they had a pre-existing smallpox infection. Jenner’s research formed the genesis of vaccination and the more extensive research, experimentation, and development of better vaccines to date.

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Disease and health practices
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