ISSUED BY TREASURY DEPARTMENT U. S. PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE OFFICE OF PUBLIC HEALTH EDUCATION WASHINGTON Public Relations for Public Health -Bleecker Marquette Research Memorandum on Social Aspects of Health in the Recent Trends in Rural Planning by William E. Cole 402 405 411 414 One year ago the first National Conference on Venereal Disease Control was held in Washington. Five weeks later, the first National Social Hygiene Day carried the story of syphilis and the findings of that Conference to more than five hundred cities and towns. The American Social Hygiene Association, sponsor of that nation-wide program, recognized that the fight against syphilis would not be won until it was carried home to every man, woman and child. Press and radio tendered their facilities for free and open discussion of a subject which had been so lately taboo. Civic and fraternal organizations have cooperated with energy in furthering the fight on syphilis. Syphilis is now a word for headlines. Articles and reports of meetings on syphilis are no longer buried in some obscure portion of the day's news. American Institute of Public Opinion polls show ninety percent of the public believe in doing some thing about syphilis. So it is that for the first time, medicine's highly perfected procedures for treatment and diagnosis, public health's effective administrative techniques for finding cases and bringing them to treatment, are backed by public acceptance. The next step is to translate public belief into public action. In the realm of action, voluntary agencies come into their own. The public health officer understands his problem. Policy-making officials and legislative bodies must also understand it. Officials, whether in the Federal Government or the remotest hamlet, act most vigorously in response to definite mandates. The American Social Hygiene Association, occupying in relation to syphilis the position that the Nation |