Public Health in Colombia

Abstract

THE April issue of the Boletin de la Oficina Sanitaria Panamericana contains an interesting paper on this subject by Dr. Eduardo Santos, a former president of the Republic of Colombia. He states that in spite of adverse conditions 140 aqueducts, thirty sewers and twenty new hospitals have been constructed in the Republic in the past fifteen or twenty years. More than eight hundred institutions are now devoted to maternity and child welfare, and the prenatal services number at present 126 as compared with 62 in 1937. During this period hospital beds have been increased from 11,422 to 16,322, and forty-five hospitals with a total of 1,500 beds are now under construction. There are at present twenty-five tuberculosis dispensaries as compared with only four in 1937. The yellow-fever campaign,is being carried on by the Government in collaboration with the Rockefeller Institute, which has an excellent laboratory at Bogotá devoted to the production of yellow fever vaccine. The campaign against typhus and bartonellosis is continuing. There is practical cooperation between the State and private agencies, such as the Red Cross, the Colombia Anti-Tuberculosis League, the Association for the Care of Lepers and other groups.