Prevention--everybody's responsibility

The importance of individual responsibility in many aspects of preventive medicine is emphasised in the introduction. A section on infectious disease as applied to Western society today follows with special mention of particular conditions such as turberculosis, influenza, rubella, gastro-intestinal diseases and Legionaire's Disease. The section on non-communicable disease is subdivided into coronary heart disease, malignant neoplasms and chronic bronchitis. It includes some discussion of screening. Short sections on prevention in the elderly, pregnancy and early life, dental health, accidents, alcoholism and drug misuse follow. In the conclusions the difficulty of determining priorities for different societies and the importance of establishing cost effectiveness of preventive measures are covered. The relative importance of societal, governmental and individual preventive measures are described and the authors emphasise that any expensive screening programme must adhere to established criteria.