Public Health

During meetings of the Continental Congress in 1776 and 1777, conditions in Baltimore were so primitive that a Connecticut delegate called the city "the most dirty Place I was ever in."A colleague from New Hampshire noted that in this city "the man with the Boots has very great Advantage over a man with shoes, the Carriages are Stoped by the Depth of the mire in the middle of the Street . . ."So the city's appointment of two health officers 200 years ago was long overdue. The city health department marked the anniversary this week with a series of seminars at the Convention Center.

Gang-related violence has become the preoccupation of law enforcement officials across Maryland in the last year or two - and Baltimore, surprisingly, may serve as a model for how to effectively combat the scourge of gangs. Taking its lead from other cities, the Baltimore Criminal Justice Coordinating Council is advocating a community-based, public health approach to reducing gang violence. Intervention and mediation are the keys, not solely tougher enforcement. But it will require a change in attitude and policy here for communities and police alike.

Dr. Edward Wilfred Johnson Jr., a Public Health Service dentist and former public school science teacher, died of cancer Oct. 18 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The former West Baltimore resident was 70. Born in Greenville, S.C., he was a 1954 Frederick Douglass High School graduate. A member of the track and field team, he also belonged to the Airgoras Social Club. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from what had been Morgan State College, and he belonged to the Alpha Phi Omega Fraternity.

William McConway Hiscock, a public health officer who helped write federal comprehensive health legislation in the 1960s, died Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of pancreatic cancer.Mr. Hiscock was a Medicaid Bureau program officer for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Care Financing Administration in Baltimore until his death last week. He was 71 and lived in Towson.In his 47-year career, Mr. Hiscock also worked in health-related positions, ranging from directing studies in public health training for the Yale University School of Medicine to being executive director of the Central Maryland Health Systems Agency Inc."

Anew penalty is being exacted on America's communities for years of neglected public-health budgets, jam-packed prisons, dank homeless shelters and the housing and work conditions suffered by our poor and immigrant groups. The penalty can be spelled in two letters: TB.Tuberculosis is the world's largest cause of death from a single infectious agent. We Americans thought we'd slain the dragon through a combination of improved hygiene, new drugs, hospital care and better housing. U.S. cases dropped to a modern-day low of 22,201 in 1985.

The people of Maryland should be very proud of their leaders for making 2007 the year of public health in Maryland, which despite its wealth has traditionally been among the worst states at providing health insurance for poor adults. The General Assembly this year passed four new laws, which will: Require all workplaces and public places to be smoke-free. Increase the state tobacco tax by $1 per pack. Allow young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plans. Provide health care coverage for many lower-income adults.

An anonymous donor has committed $5 million to the Johns Hopkins University for an addition to the university's School of Public Health in East Baltimore.The university announced yesterday that the gift from an alumnus of the Hopkins School of Medicine will pay for the bulk of a $6.2 million expansion of the public health school's Wolfe Street headquarters. The addition will nearly double the size of the Monument Street wing, which opened in 1996.Hopkins officials said construction will begin in April.

The Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health has && been ranked the best graduate school of its kind in a nationwide survey published this week in U.S. News & World Report.The rating was based on a survey of 50 deans, top administrators and senior faculty members at accredited schools public health across the country. It was conducted by Market Facts Inc., a private research company."We're delighted to be so highly recognized by our colleagues," said Dr. Alfred Sommer, dean of the Hopkins graduate school.

Evelyn M. Cortezi, a retired nursing supervisor and former Towson resident, died of cancer Sept. 29 at Oak Crest Village in Parkville. She was 91. She was born Evelyn Mockard in Baltimore and raised on West 23rd Street. Mrs. Cortezi was a graduate of Western High School. She also attended the Franklin Square Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1933. She earned her bachelor's degree in nursing in 1963 from the University of Maryland School of Nursing. She began working in 1948 as a public health nurse with the old Baltimore Bureau of Public Health Nursing, and in 1960, became a nursing supervisor with the Baltimore City Department of Social Services.