In the early twentieth century a wider debate took place about how Swedish society was to fight the spread of contagious venereal diseases and in 1910 a government committee had written a law proposal that would dramatically reform these measures previously, Swedish physicians had been united against any measures against these diseases that did not involve the regulation of prostitutes, but this consensus was slowly withering away in the early parts of the century. Female doctors and a younger generation of venereologists was drawing the conclusion that mandatory checks of only one out of two sexes was insufficient. This article reviews the debate regarding the regulation of prostitution that took place between conservative and liberal members in the Swedish Medical Association in 1911. It depicts a fierce discussion between members that still clung to nineteenth-century ideas of women as being prone to prostitution if left idle and unemployed, and liberal members that believed social injustices such as low wages laid behind women's decisions. The study gives an insight into the complexities of building the Swedish welfare state.
A significant progress in the management of controllable infections achieved by the early XXI century made it possible eliminate poliomyelitis across the nation, and practically eliminate measeles by vaccinating 96-99% of the children without raising the complication rate. The list of counterindications was shortened significantly, the Calendar of immunoprophylaxis was supplemented by inoculations against hepatitis B, rubella, flu, and type b Haemophilis influenzae infections. Morbidity of controllable infections in Russia decreased substantially compared with that in the 1990s. Nevertheless, the public health services are faced with the necessity of speedy application of new vaccines (including combined ones) allowing the inoculation impact on the child to be reduced. A rationale for the use of vaccines against pneumococcal and meningococcal infections, hepatitis A, varicella and for scaling up anti-pertussis vaccination coverage is proposed. Equally important is more extensive vaccination against papillomavirus infection as a means of cervical cancer prevention and introduction of the rotavirus vaccine to control most viral diarrheas.
