The health services program in the TTPI
Greaves, F. C. (1948). "The health services program in the TTPI". United States Naval Medical Bulletin. 48 (6): 925–940.
Abstract: The Pacific islands to which the author refers are those of the former Japanese Mandated Islands of Micronesia; they include 2, 133 islands, atolls and reefs in the Marshall, Caroline and Marianas Groups. There are about 50, 000 inhabitants, who live in about 120 isolated island communities. Before contact was established with foreigners there were about three times as many people, but a century and a half of contact has meant epidemics of typhoid fever, smallpox, measles and other diseases, which displayed the severity commonly recorded in unsalted populations. At present there is little accurate information as to the prevalent diseases, though there is reason to believe that tuberculosis is widespread and intestinal parasitism almost universal; leprosy and venereal diseases also exist, and there is a form of encephalitis due to an unidentified virus, which would repay study.
In these islands there are civil administration dispensaries, with 325 beds and 18 medical officers, but the Guam Memorial Hospital of 300 beds can also be used, though Guam is not administratively part of these island groups. The American authorities have equipped a survey ship, which carries two medical officers, a dental officer, a public health official and their staff and equipment (including a photofluorographic unit). This vessel travels from island to island, all the inhabitants are examined and an assessment of the sanitary conditions is made. Eventually a considerable body of exact information will be available, on which the structure of a health service can be based.
The training of the local people for health duties is promoted, and there are three schools, for medicine, dentistry and nursing respectively, at which the courses last 4 years. The people are lively and intelligent, and are " quick to accept the elements of civilization that benefit them, interest them, or amuse them ".
The American authorities [presumably the naval authorities] have interpreted the Trusteeship Agreement literally, and have proceeded upon a course of action based upon accepted American standards. That is, they do not propose to leave the people undisturbed, and to take only such health action as would be necessary to protect the American administrators, but rather to train the people to the adoption of American standards. Progress is being made in cleanliness of villages, safety of food and water supplies, sanitation, etc.
Extra details:
PMID: 18894603 MAG: 2413053996 OpenAlex: W2413053996
