Social diseases of the population of the urals in the mirror of the periodical press: according to the materials of «Ural medical journal» (1928-1931)

The article reconstructs the history of the fight against the epidemic of «social diseases» (pulmonary tuberculosis, syphilis and gonorrhea) from the point of view of eyewitnesses - doctors and organizers of the soviet health care who worked in the Ural Oblast at the turn of the 1920-1930s, based on materials (articles, notes, reports) published on the pages of «Ural Medical Journal» (1928-1931). Research methods: content analysis of publications, problem-chronological, «subjective-historical» (from the standpoint of the feelings and moods of contemporaries). The increase in the incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis was mainly provoked by the conditions of work, life and life of the urban and factory population (dusty and cramped industrial premises and dwellings, overcrowding, scarcity and monotony of nutrition, damp and humid air, lack of heat and sunlight, etc.). Favorable conditions for the spread of venereal diseases created a lack of elementary ideas about sexual hygiene among the population (especially in rural areas), the availability of casual intimate relationships (mainly «on the street»), a disregard for one’s own health, late appeal for qualified medical care and quack methods of treatment. The scale of the incidence of «consumption», «lues» and gonorrhea in the Urals exceeded the average russian indicators, and therefore, to combat «social diseases», a system of specialized health care institutions is being formed: tuberculosis dispensaries and sanatoriums, on the one hand, and venereological units, points and dispensaries – on the other.