|
Tobacco was not the consumer product it later became, there were only 4,000 cars
at the turn of the century so motor vehicle collisions and deaths wouldn’t
have been on anyone’s future challenges list, and dentition was considered a
cosmetic frill rather than a health issue- so the success of fluoridation with
its huge impact on quality of life would have been thought peripheral to
improving health. HIV was to become the scourge of the end of the century.
Thirty new emerging infectious diseases have become apparent in the past 30
years, including Lyme Disease, toxic shock syndrome, Hantavirus respiratory
illness, Legionnaire’s disease, etc. Dementias were not appreciated as a great
health issue, in part because people died in what we would now consider middle
age. |