First GB Medical Officer of HealthIn 1847, the first British Medical Officer of Health was appointed, Dr William Duncan, in Liverpool. The city had grown too rapidly as a port city, where commercial gain was pursued without regard to the overcrowded, insanitary conditions in which the increasing numbers of workers lived. Duncan realized such problems created epidemics of diseases such as cholera, smallpox and typhus. His 1843 pamphlet, The Physical Causes of the High Mortality Rate in Liverpool, raised these issues as reasons the mortality rate in the city far exceeded other towns. He was a of pioneer in the Victorian public health movement. He used the power of the media to spread public health messages, by holding weekly press conferences to keep a focus on public health and to advocate change.« |
