He argues that better nutrition increases resistance to infection and increases the survival chances of those who did get infected. However this has been challenged as females usually have a lower intake of food compared to men, and yet they live longer than men. The second reason for the decrease in the death rate is the healthcare the country now has improved massively. In 1900, many people would die due to illnesses that we wouldn’t see as a problem anymore such as the flu. There weren’t antibiotics and other ways to help cure these illnesses, and the ways they did have weren’t effective enough to stop people dying.
The Americas were different in their reaction towards disease, than Europe. The way that they were different is the Americas reacted with death, about 75% of deaths in the Americas in 1492-1750 were disease related. The disease that was most prominent was smallpox. Europe didn’t have a reaction because the people had already had the disease and their immune systems were used to the disease so not many died. they are different in their reaction, this making the Columbian Exchange for goods but also for viral disease that killed many.
As the method of quarantine had worked previously, elements of this are evident in the response to the outbreak of Cholera in the nineteenth century with quarantine of passengers on ships. The travellers were inspected and if suspected resulted in the isolation of infected persons in special hospitals (Brunton, 2009, pg 194). The theory was that if disease spread through contagion then it could be controlled through quarantine. Although favoured by some, it was rejected by others as this restricted trade. Unlike the plague, the Cholera epidemic
So if people from “all shades” where suddenly worried about Cholera then the government would have to start putting work into finding out the cause of Cholera. And if it wasn’t for the cholera epidemics then the middle class would not be care about public health and sanitation. Source 15 is a “report to the members of the Leeds board of health.” The Leeds board of heath will have been funded by the government. This shows me that the government was trying to work on public health. And the government would only spend the money and time on public health if people were questioning the public heath available to them.
Houses in the Norman era were built by professional carpenters instead of the home owners and were kept clean through sweeping. York still had a problem with public waste though, enough so that King Edward III wrote to the city’s mayor in disgust. From the late 1300s onwards, evidence shows that people were better fed, better housed and were wealthier than earlier times. People still experienced major problems with infection with no real solution so life expectancy still failed to rise
This diffusion of goods throughout an empire also spread diseases. If one part of the empire had plague, then the whole empire would eventually get the plague. Moreover, plague also decreased the population of both Rome, and Han China, which led to a disadvantage. This primarily, led to a lack of security because the population would decrease and less of the population would be enrolled in the army because they are sick. Under these precarious conditions, the empires borders were left less guarded.
Also this source is unreliable because of what Haig was writing and who he was informing. This source was written to inform the British government, the Prime Minister, so consequently, Haig would put more optimism in the letters to avoid the blame for the failure of the war. Finally, he mention how the barbed wires were cut well, and how the battle was going like clockwork, when 60,000 were injured or dead and 20,000 plus were definitely dead. The statement of the barbwire being cut well is a lie as I know from my own contextual knowledge that the barbed wire was not penetrated due to its thickness and vastness. Source C is an interview with Private George Coppard, already making it more reliable than source B because Private George Coppard was present at the frontline, therefore, his information is firsthand.
Through public measures, the government tried to introduce public sanitation measures, like the Romans had when miasmas were thought to create illness and disease. A Miasma is merely a bad smell, however, the main focus was purely on public cleansing, which helped a great deal in reducing those who fell ill. In more depth, Florence nightingale was one of the people who publicised the miasma theory of disease, and campaigned for cleaner hospitals. This meant that hygiene in hospitals was greatly improved, and the possibility of contracting a disease was reduced. The benefits of these measures and many more were clear, as to the end of the nineteenth century; councils in England were competing with each other to provide the best public health care.
According to research, life expectancy rose and death rates began to fall, mostly in infants due to the improvement in sanitation and the provision of clean water, improvement on the council houses and the general improved standards of living. The social model believes that ill health is as a result of the inequalities in society and the life circumstances of the disadvantaged. Marxists believe that levels of illness differ in relation to social class, i.e. there is a high level of illness in poor areas because of poor nutrition, excessive drinking and lack of exercises, there is unequal distribution of NHS resources/ postcode lottery (the health care received depends on geographical location) e.g. South Wales is one of the deprived areas in the UK with fewer hospitals and doctors.
Therefore, his work was extremely important because it led to the first Public health Act. However, the first Public health Act didn’t have a lot of impact, and it was only passed at that time because there had been a cholera epidemic. The government didn’t really want to force local authorities to make improvements because it cost a lot of money. It wasn’t until 1875, after the link had been made between dirt and disease, that a second Public health Act was passed which forced local authorities to improve conditions. This was passed partly because working class men had the vote.