Występowanie chorób zakaźnych w Wielkopolsce w latach 1945-1953 143
Incidence rate of infectious diseases in Greater Poland in the years 1945 – 1953 according to the documents of the National Archive in Poznań
Abstract
The war brings infinite suffering , death and destruction . Those who survive it have to deal with diseases that follow .
In the 1940s and 1950s , county doctors wrote reports on infectious disease incidence for the Department of Health of the Regional Government in Poznań .
The article comprises the presentation and comparison of parallel reports from the years 1946 and 1953 . Based on that , it makes an attempt to explain the higher incidence rate of infectious diseases in some parts of Greater Poland based on the historical context of this period .
For the year 1946 , the data describe 23 counties . Data for the year 1953 include 26 counties . Due to the comparability of information , the article includes data only for rural counties .
Typical diseases of the period were typhoid , tuberculosis and diphtheria , but the high mortality rate can also be explained by exhaustion , poor hygiene and malnutrition among the migrating masses of people . The analyses conducted indicate that the strongest relationship can be observed between infectious diseases and the location of prisoners ’ and work camps and the migration of people going through the stage points of the National Repatriates Office .