Public Health Center on Tuberculosis Management in Korea: From 1945 to the Late 1970s (2019)
Tuberculosis (TB) was called “ruinous disease” in colonial Korea. However, it is no longer a threat to the lives of the Korean people. Public Health Centers (PHC) have played a role in the reduction of TB prevalence by providing free medical treatment and vaccination. PHCs are valued highly for suggesting the possibility of TB suppression. Despite these outcomes, the achievements of PHCs may be slightly overstated from a therapeutic perspective. PHCs could not prevent and treat TB well in their conditions at the time in Korea. The concept of PHC in Korea that emphasizes prevention rather than treatment came from the US. There is a need to reevaluate the achievements of PHCs in TB control. The South Korean government established an anti-TB network system named “Health-Net” in 1962. PHCs were the primary institutions against TB. The “100,000 Tuberculosis Patients Registration Program” was conducted by the government through PHCs, which was an effective anti-TB program. The success of the registration program was a result of the effort by PHCs and anti-TB private organizations. Free medications distributed by PHCs helped to decrease mortality due to TB. The implementation of the “Tuberculosis Prevention Act” in 1968 strengthened the management function of PHCs. A larger anti-TB budget by the law made new prescriptions possible, including second-generation medications. It also enabled the recruitmen of more manpower for TB control, finding TB patients, and BCG vaccination. However, there were some limits of PHCs’ therapeutic role in these achievements. At first, the lower cure rate in patients receiving medical care at PHCs was a main problem. The fact that PHCs accounted for nationwide TB patients was another problem. It is unclear that PHCs had an active role in TB management. There were no specific TB treatment programs except the follow-up treatment dependent on the only one medication. PHCs in the 1960s and 1970s achieved the results of patient registration and free treatment in TB control, but there was a limit to their therapeutic function.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
Kyuri Kim;
Buhm Soon Park;
(2019)
Infrastructure-building for Public Health : The World Health Organization and Tuberculosis Control in South Korea, 1945-1963
(/isis/citation/CBB938564282/)
Article
Lee, S. H.;
(2014)
Joining WHO of Republic of Korea and the Projects in the 1950s
(/isis/citation/CBB001422419/)
Article
Harsch, Donna;
(2012)
Medicalized Social Hygiene? Tuberculosis Policy in the German Democratic Republic
(/isis/citation/CBB001251579/)
Article
Álvarez, Adriana;
(2010)
La experiencia de ser un 'niño débil y enfermo' lejos de su hogar: el caso del Asilo Marítimo, Mar del Plata (1893--1920)
(/isis/citation/CBB001420440/)
Article
Ye-mok Jeon;
Young-jeon Shin;
(2022)
Health Security Ideas of Major Political Groups and the US Military Government during the Liberation Period (1945-1948) in Korea
(/isis/citation/CBB967829726/)
Article
Shin, Y. J.;
Kim, J.;
(2014)
The Life of Choe Ung-Sok: With a Focus on His Design for and Role in the Health Care System Immediately after the Liberation
(/isis/citation/CBB001422428/)
Article
Haugh, Susan;
(2009)
The Hill of Health: Aspects of Community at the Waipiata Tuberculosis Sanatorium, 1923--1961
(/isis/citation/CBB001232087/)
Article
Digby, Anne;
(2008)
“Vision and Vested Interests”: National Health Service Reform in South Africa and Britain during the 1940s and Beyond
(/isis/citation/CBB000930676/)
Book
Houston, C. Stuart;
(2002)
Steps on the Road to Medicare: Why Saskatchewan Led the Way
(/isis/citation/CBB000930424/)
Book
Corti, Francesca;
(2004)
Il mal sottile: i 90 anni della Lega polmonare ticinese
(/isis/citation/CBB000700729/)
Article
Choi, Eun Kyung;
(2013)
Anti-Tuberculosis Policy of the Government General of Korea during Japanese-Colonial Period (1910--1945): From Simple Restriction to Active Enlightenment
(/isis/citation/CBB001214036/)
Article
Park, Yunjae;
(2013)
The Work of Sherwood Hall and the Haiju Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Colonial Korea
(/isis/citation/CBB001214035/)
Thesis
Farnbach Pearson, Amy Walker;
(2013)
Tuberculosis, Social Inequality, and the Hospital in Nineteenth-Century Scotland
(/isis/citation/CBB001567453/)
Article
Kyung-Rok Lee;
(2020)
The Character and Meaning of the Reorganization of the Medical Institutions in the Early Chosun Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB261304855/)
Article
Ji-young Park;
(2019)
Statistics and Colonial Medicine: A Doubt and Controversy on Tuberculosis Statistics in Colonial Korea
(/isis/citation/CBB862371844/)
Article
DiMoia, John P.;
(2008)
“Let's Have the Proper Number of Children and Raise Them Well!”: Family Planning and Nation-Building in South Korea, 1961--1968
(/isis/citation/CBB000930701/)
Book
Wolters, Christine;
(2011)
Tuberkulose und Menschenversuche im Nationalsozialismus: Das Netzwerk hinter den Tbc-Experimenten im Konzentrationslager Sachsenhausen
(/isis/citation/CBB001202027/)
Article
Welshman, John;
(2006)
Compulsion, Localism, and Pragmatism: The Micro-Politics of Tuberculosis Screening in the United Kingdom, 1950--1965
(/isis/citation/CBB000770624/)
Book
Armus, Diego;
(2011)
The Ailing City: Health, Tuberculosis, and Culture in Buenos Aires, 1870--1950
(/isis/citation/CBB001250142/)
Article
Hähner-Rombach, Sylvelyn;
(2014)
Anforderungen in der ambulanten Versorgung: Das Beispiel der Tuberkulosefürsorgerinnen im ersten Drittel des 20. Jahrhunderts
(/isis/citation/CBB001421916/)
Be the first to comment!