There are a number of works on rural health in our collections, including general works from dating the late 19th century when the public health movement gathered momentum.
The examples I have chosen below are on the open shelves in the gallery. Please ask library staff for directions if you are unsure how to find them.
- Pamphlets on rural hygiene in the United States, vol.1: 1918-1937. [collected and compiled by LSHTM Library]
Shelf mark: SRAE.6, 1918-1937 Location: Gallery
Availability. Kept on open shelves, 2-week loan.
This set of bound pamphlets consists of Public Health Reports and Public Health Bulletins published by the United States Public Health Service.
The reports discuss the effects of poor sanitation and water supply in the rural areas of counties within specific States, identifying priority areas for improvement programmes. Most of the areas had not witnessed the scale of improvements achieved in urban areas. However, the movement of people and goods originating in unsanitary areas was also a major cause of concern.
In 1931, the US Government made $2,000,000 available for a rural health programme, an emergency fund for States affected by drought: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
- Pamphlets on rural health / World Health Organization Regional Office for the Western Pacific, Vol.1, 1961-62.
Shelf mark: SRAE.224, 1961-62 Location: Gallery
Availability: Kept on open shelves, 2-week loan.
The two items in this collection are a refresher course on integrated rural health, aimed at assistant medical officers; and a report from the first Regional Seminar on rural health services. Sanitation, communicable and non-communicable diseases, education, maternal and child health services are all covered in the course, while the Seminar gives a snapshot of how these issues manifested themselves in the Western Pacific Region during this period.
- Rural Health Programme of Pakistan 1986-1990 / Pakistan. Planning and Development Division. Islamabad, 1986.
Shelf mark: SR.24, 1986 Location: Gallery
Availability: Kept on open shelves, 2-week loan
A practical document looking at expenditure and planning of rural health facilities, including maps, plans and costings over the 4-year period of the programme. The establishment of rural health centres dates back to 1960 when 5 pilot centres were built. Page 2 of the document states “Agriculture remains the back-bone of the Pakistan economy providing 54% of the total employment and 23% of the GDP …. according to the 1979 Household Expenditure Survey 35% of the population subsists under the poverty line”
