Results found: 2

Search results

Search:
in the keywords: Hygiene

Sort By:

Limit search:

Discourse of Hygiene in Islam: Response of the Muslims in China to SARS Event / Islamski dyskurs na temat higieny: chińscy muzułmanie a kwestia SARS

100%

Wang J.

Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, sectio K – Politologia

2012

vol. 19

issue 2

71-87

The general mentality of the public in China towards religion is that it is definitely “backward, anti -science, and connected with superstition”. This public opinion continues even though the country has embarked on its ambitious opening and reform program for more than twenty years, and despite freedom of religious practices being guaranteed by the national constitution. Such a paradoxical phenomenon is due to and is obviously rooted in the long -standing communist propaganda and its atheistic ideological education. Lot of Chinese people, particularly young people, regard religion as totally negative and thoroughly opposite to science. The majority of Chinese also think religion has been blocking China’s road toward its modernization and social advancement. However, SARS, or the “Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome”, the grave pestilence, which caused several hundred people to die and infected thousands, plunged China in a calamity during the first part of 2003 and has taught people a bitter lesson. It was not religion causing this virus. Rather religion took a positive role to prevent its spreading and to promote a scientific, healthy way of life. In the event of SARS, Muslim clerics and scholars wrote articles in their discourses to discuss Islamic hygiene, nutrition, and the way to keep in good health from the perspective of the Quran, the Hadith (the Prophet Muhammad’s speeches) and the Sunna (examples of the Prophet Muhammad). For instance, Islam teaches people to not consume impure meats such as pork or dead cattle, and it prohibits consuming blood, dog meat, meats of strange poultries, and other animals that may trigger plague, i.e., eating civet meat causes the virus of SARS. Muslims also say that the Quran advises people to eat food in moderation and not to lead an extravagant life. Islam also teaches people not to be greedy in lifestyle in order to avoid damaging the ecological environment or creating an unbalance between nature and man. Muslim scholars argue that the Quran, though an ancient text, predates modern science in providing ways to prevent the spreading of diseases, like SARS, that afflict many people. Such religious discourses made by Islamic religious people during the SARS crisis has not only contributed to the measures taken by Muslims in their own communities, but also has greatly helped non -Muslim Chinese people understand the correctness of Islamic teachings, the scientific wisdom of Islamic hygiene, and the compatibility of Islam or religion with modern sciences. The discourse has resulted in the mutual understanding between Muslims and non -Muslims in China, and also resulted in newly formed public opinions that religion is not anti -sciences, and religion is complementary in some degree to science, even that sciences are embodied in religion and can be guided by religion. This paper was prepared and read for “Continuity + Change: Perspectives on Science and Religion”, June 3-7, 2006, in Philadelphia, PA, USA, a program of the Metanexus Institute (www.metanexus.net). Based on the final draft the author has revised this paper afterwards.

The role of the Hygiene Department of Stephen Bathory University in the development and promotion of Public Health in Vilnius in the years 1922–1939

45%

Žalnora A.

Studia Historiae Scientiarum

2018

vol. 17

Objective: During the interwar period, the healthcare system in Europe experienced a dramatic transformation. It was perceived that preventive medicine was no less important than curative medicine. Moreover, without proper prevention of the so-called social diseases, all later therapeutic measures were expensive and ineffective. The former battle against the consequences was replaced by measures targeting the causes. The fight against social diseases involved a state-owned strategy and a broad arsenal of measures. The University’s scholars also took part in this process. Our study revealed that the significance of the disease prevention in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Stephen Bathory was well understood. Moreover, the treatment was not segregated from hygiene as strictly as it is today. Many hygienists as well as clinicians contributed to the development of preventive mechanisms. The broad specialization of doctors enabled them to see not only biomedical, but also social and economic aspects of a disease. Hygienists and doctors encouraged cooperation and coordination of their activities with the central and local authorities as well as education of the local population.The progress of medical science in Europe and the World, as well as the Soviet ideology in Eastern Europe distracted doctors from the search for the etiology of social illness. Biomedical treatment had become much more effective, and the development of social hygiene research in Eastern Europe had experienced stagnation. For ideological reasons the disease etiology in the Soviet bloc could not be associated with social factors. Social hygiene in the Soviet Union was highly politicized; it could only be interpreted in a frame of Soviet models. The healthcare system that had been created in the Soviet Union was named as the best in the world. The actual medical statistics were concealed from the public, since their logical interpretation could reveal the social causes of illnesses and the disadvantages of the soviet system.Sometimes we must return to basic ideas to improve current public health mechanisms. It is worth reconsidering fundamental questions, i.e. what public health is and how to achieve it. The breadth of the approach of the interwar Vilnius hygienists and doctors, the sensitivity to the social origins of diseases and persistence in combating them by all possible means could serve as an example for today’s doctors. At that time, hygienists approached the idea that the highest goal of prevention was to create a healthy environment, healthy living and working conditions. Although today we live in a much safer environment than those individuals did, new threats are emerging because of changing technology and lifestyle. The broad approach of physicians remains equally important in order not only to combat individual precedents, but also to overcome the preconditions for emerging precedents. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the theoretical patterns of hygiene and public health established by the hygienists of the Vilnius Hygiene Department as well as the attempts to apply them in practice.Methods: The study was conducted by analyzing the primary and secondary historical sources using the comparative method. A lot of data from the Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas (Lithuanian Central State Archives) that had been used in this research were published for the first time. According to the original archival data, an analysis of the scientific publications of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Stephen Bathory was made to find out the priorities of the research carried out at that time.Conclusions: The complicated economic conditions, the lack of support from the local and central government as well as the imperfections in health legislation of that time hindered the full implementation of the hygienist strategies of the University of Stephen Bathory. However, the activities of the Department of Hygiene of Stephen Bathory University had a significant impact on the development of hygiene science as well as medical practice in the Vilnius region during the Interwar period (1919–1939).

Cel badań: W okresie międzywojennym system opieki zdrowotnej przeżył dramatyczną transformację. Uważano, że medycyna zapobiegawcza jest nie mniej ważna niż medycyna lecznicza. Ponadto, bez zapobiegania tzw. chorobom społecznym wszystkie późniejsze działania stawały się kosztowniejsze i nieefektywne. Walkę z konsekwencjami zastąpiono środkami ukierunkowanymi na zapobieganie. Zwalczanie chorób społecznych wymagało odpowiedniej strategii państwowej i obszernego zestawu narzędzi. Uniwersyteccy naukowcy też mieli udział w tej walce. Badanie wykazało, że w okresie międzywojennym, na Wydziale Lekarskim Uniwersytetu Stefana Batorego w Wilnie, wartość – jaką było zapobieganie chorobom – była zrozumiała, a samo leczenie nie było oddzielone od higieny tak wyraźnie, jak to jest dzisiaj. Mechanizmy zapobiegawcze zostały opracowane zarówno przez wielu higienistów, jak i klinicystów. Szeroka wiedza lekarzy pozwoliła im dostrzec nie tylko biomedyczne, ale także społeczne i ekonomiczne aspekty choroby. Higieniści i lekarze zachęcali władze centralne i lokalne do współpracy i koordynacji działań zapobiegających chorobom oraz do edukacji lokalnej ludności.Postęp nauk medycznych w Europie i na świecie, a także ideologia sowiecka w Europie Wschodniej, odwracały uwagę lekarzy od poszukiwań społecznej etiologii chorób. Leczenie biomedyczne było skuteczniejsze i od tego czasu rozwój badań nad higieną społeczną w Europie Wschodniej, bardzo spowolnił. Higiena społeczna w Związku Radzieckim była bardzo upolityczniona, można ją było interpretować tylko w kategoriach sowieckiego modelu pojęciowego. System opieki zdrowotnej stworzony w Związku Radzieckim został uznany za najlepszy na świecie. Dane statystyk medycznych były ukrywane przed opinią publiczną, ponieważ ich logiczna interpretacja mogła ujawnić społeczne przyczyny choroby i wady obecnego systemu.Dzisiaj, aby ulepszyć mechanizmy zdrowia publicznego, czasami musimy powracać do podstawowych idei. Warto zastanowić się nad podstawowymi pytaniami – czym jest zdrowie publiczne i jak je osiągnąć. Szerokie podejście do problemu, wrażliwość na pochodzenie społeczne choroby i wytrwałość w walce z nią, wszelkimi możliwymi środkami, mogłaby być wzorem dla dzisiejszych lekarzy. W tamtym czasie nauka o zdrowiu zbliżyła się do idei, że najwyższym celem zapobiegania chorobom jest stworzenie zdrowego środowiska oraz zapewnienie zdrowych warunków do życia i pracy. Chociaż dzisiaj żyjemy w o wiele bezpieczniejszym środowisku niż ludzie w tamtych czasach, zmiany w technologii i stylu życia, mogą powodować nowe zagrożenia. Szerokie podejście lekarzy pozostaje dziś równie ważne, aby zwalczać nie tylko same precedensy, ale także wstępne warunki ich pojawiania się. Celem niniejszego opracowania jest ujawnienie teoretycznych wzorców w zakresie higieny i zdrowia publicznego ustanowionego przez higienistów Zakładu Higieny w Wilnie, a także prób ich zastosowania w praktyce.Metody: Badanie przeprowadzono poprzez analizę pierwotnych i wtórnych źródeł historii. Zastosowano metodę porównawczą. Wiele danych z Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybės Archyvas (Litewskiego Centralnego Archiwum Państwowego) zostanie opublikowanych po raz pierwszy. Zgodnie z oryginalnymi danymi archiwalnymi przeprowadzono analizę publikacji naukowych Wydziału Lekarskiego Uniwersytetu Stefana Batora, aby ustalić priorytetowe kierunki prowadzonych w tym czasie badań.Wnioski: Skomplikowane warunki ekonomiczne, brak poparcia ze strony władz lokalnych i centralnej administracji oraz niedoskonałości ustawodawstwa zdrowotnego w tamtym okresie uniemożliwiły pełne wdrożenie strategii higienistycznych wypracowanych w Uniwersytecie Stefana Batorego. Jednakże uważamy, że działania higienistów USB miały znaczący wpływ na rozwój nauki higieny i praktyki lekarskiej na Wileńszczyźnie w okresie międzywojennym (1919–1939).

Refine search results

1 Annales Universitatis Mariae Curie-Skłodowska, sectio K – Politologia

1 Studia Historiae Scientiarum

1 Wang J.

1 Žalnora A.

1 2018

1 2012

Search results

Discourse of Hygiene in Islam: Response of the Muslims in China to SARS Event / Islamski dyskurs na temat higieny: chińscy muzułmanie a kwestia SARS

The role of the Hygiene Department of Stephen Bathory University in the development and promotion of Public Health in Vilnius in the years 1922–1939