All roads lead to Rome: Aspects of public health in ancient Rome

Abstract

Modern western civilization can be traced back to the Roman antiquity in terms of policy, legislation, art, and culture. The development of ancient Rome from a kingdom in Latio to a democracy and finally a thriving empire has paved the way for medicine and public health. As a kingdom, Rome has established laws for maternal health and abortion. Later on, as a democracy, Rome payed special attention to sanitation and infections control building aqueducts and public baths. During the imperial period, apart from the aforementioned, Ro-SUMMARY man administration improved public health measures with regard to pandemics. The correlation of infectious outbreaks with animals, are considered as one of the first noticed of zoonotic diseases in the field of public health. The term public health itself (medici publici) can be traced back to doctors appointed with public health and disease control duties in Ancient Rome.

The relevance of medical history to current practice

“…The distribution of clean drinking water and separation of sewage removal by the Romans contributed much more than medical advances to preventing disease. 16 Although it now seems obvious that basic hygiene measures are crucial to the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes, several pioneers made significant contributions swimming against the tide of official policy. Florence Nightingale developed modern nursing during the Crimean war though promoting cleaning of wounds, better food and clean, more spacious hospital wards, 17 reducing mortality to around 2%.…”

Grundzüge des bevölkerungsmedizinischen Infektionsschutzes

“…Jahrhunderts auf, insbesondere der Identifizierung von Krankheitserregern und der Wiederentdeckung seit der Antike bzw. dem arabischen Mittelalter in Europa rudimentärer verhältnispräventiver Maßnahmen wie der Trennung von Trink-und Abwasserinfrastruktur [3,8].…”

“…Bei den großen Seuchen der Geschichte wie Pest, Lepra, Syphilis oder Tuberkulose wurden von jeher mehr oder minder wirksame Präventionsmaßnahmen durchgeführt [3,6]. In Rom war die Wasserversorgung als hohes gesundheitliches Gut staatlicher Aufsicht unterworfen, der Curator aquarum war für die Wasserversorgung der Stadt verantwortlich [7,8].…”