Preventive Medicine: Principles of Prevention in the Occurrence and Progression of Disease

Abstract

With the field of Preventive Medicine constantly commanding more of the interest and responsibility of the practicing physician, it is gratifying to welcome this splendid new textbook written primarily for medical students and practitioners. The book distinguishes between prevention of occurrence of disease, the primary goal, and prevention of progression, the secondary goal; and the main division of the text is along these lines. Of the 31 contributors, all but three are present or former members of the staff of the New York State Department of Health, and the text is prepared largely from material used in lectures to medical students, physicians and health department employees.Under Prevention of Occurrence, the first eleven chapters deal with control of environmental factors including water, food, waste, air, insects, radiation, disasters, accidents, housing and occupation. Then follow six chapters on prophylactic measures against specific groups of infectious diseases, a chapter on nutrition and three chapters on the elimination of predisease conditions, namely obesity and the health hazards of childbirth and childhood.