Atlas Trail
From the Sanitary Report to Smallpox Zero
How health became public: a walk through six moments where disease stopped being private misfortune and became something a society could measure, prevent and, once, abolish outright. It begins with a report on filth and poverty in 1842 and ends with the only human disease ever driven to zero.
Stop 1 of 6.
Milestones
In 1842 Edwin Chadwick's Sanitary Report argues that disease follows filth and poverty, and that preventing it is cheaper than relieving it. Health becomes a question of drains and administration, not only of doctors.
Stop 2 of 6.
Milestones
In 1854 John Snow maps cholera deaths around a water pump on Broad Street and persuades the parish to remove its handle. Field epidemiology begins with a map, a list of the dead and a question about the water.
Stop 3 of 6.
Milestones
In 1948 the World Health Organization is founded, with a constitution defining health as complete physical, mental and social wellbeing rather than merely the absence of disease.
Stop 4 of 6.
Milestones
The same year, a Massachusetts town begins the Framingham Heart Study. As infections recede in wealthy countries, attention turns to heart disease, and the study teaches the world a new phrase: risk factor.
Stop 5 of 6.
Milestones
In 1978, at Alma Ata, the world's health ministers declare primary health care the route to health for all: prevention, community care and equity ahead of hospitals alone.
Stop 6 of 6.
Milestones
In 1980 the World Health Assembly certifies that smallpox is gone. Surveillance, ring vaccination and thirteen years of coordinated fieldwork close the trail where public health has so far reached its highest mark: zero.
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