From Rosén von Rosenstein to HUGO (The Human Genome Organization)

Abstract

The situation of health for children in Sweden in the middle of the 1700 century was very bad with an infant mortality of 50-60 %. Rosén von Rosenstein made outstanding contribution for better child health and sick care through research and teaching, which tremendously improved child care and social conditions in Sweden. One of the most important effects of this was a marked falling in infant death rate. He pointed out that a child was not an incomplete variant of the adult and that children had special needs and specific diseases, which required specific therapy and that deficiency states and diseases could be prevented. This is in line with clinical genetics, the ultimate goal of which is the prevention and management of genetic diseases. Rosén von Rosenstein defended his thesis ‘‘De historiis morborum rite consignandis’’ (On the writing of case reports) in 1730,where he pointed out the importance of a detailed case and family history, which also is basic in clinical genetics.