U.S. National Library of Medicine Images from the History of the Public Health Service
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International Health

Participation by the Public Health Service in international activities was very limited until the latter part of the 19th century. The earliest international contacts were mainly on an individual basis, usually American physicians going to study at European universities and laboratories, which were then at the forefront of biomedical research and the sanitary sciences. Toward the end of the 19th century Public Health Service officers began traveling to international sanitary conferences, both abroad and in this country, in order to explore and develop conventions for preventing the spread of epidemic diseases and for implementing effective quarantine measures.

Public Health Service officers took an active pan in planning, creating, and directing the activities of several major international health organizations. such as the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, which was established in 1902; the International Office of Public Health, which was established in Paris in 1909; and the World Health Organization, which was created in 1948 and which eventually absorbed the other two organizations.

Since 1968 the John E. Fogarty International Center has been the primary focal point for coordinating NIH international activities by supporting biomedical research through international fellowships and scientist exchanges, and by providing assistance to the NIH in planning and implementing international research programs.

By means of its various computer data bases the National Library of Medicine provides a very valuable world-wide medical information service.

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