POČETAK RAZVOJA ZDRAVSTVA U PIROTSKOM OKRUGU

Abstract

The article represents a descriptive study on the development of health- care in southeastern Serbia and the Pirot District. The data were collected through the analysis of the existing literature and historiographic sources. The results have shown that the health culture in the Pirot District at the end of the 19th century did not differ from the situation that existed on the territory of the Principality of Serbia. In the Pirot District, as well as in other parts of the Balkans, folk medicine was used almost until the middle of the 20th century. Traditional knowledge and methods of treatment were mostly transmit- ted orally and were often very close to witchcraft, quackery and phytotherapy. However, there are some written medical documents as well. The oldest preserved medical record in Ponišavlje is the Pirotska lekaruša, created at the end of the 18th century. Pirot became a part of the Principality of Serbia at the end of the 19th century. At the same time, with the arrival of the first foreign doctors and the opening of the first hospitals and farmacies, organized healthcare began. In terms of healthcare, Pirot has come a long way from a town where residents were exposed to constant life-threatening illnesses due to low medical knowledge and culture to a city with organized healthcare and educated doctors. The foreign doctors raised the health awareness of the people, dealt with the eradication of many infectious diseases that in the past mowed down the population, and worked as military doctors in wars and health educators in peace.