Author/Editor		Zadravec, Jože; Zupanič-Slavec, Zvonka
Title		Razvoj zdravstva v Prekmurju do leta 1941
Translated title		The development of healthcare in Prekmurje
Type		monografija
Place		Murska Sobota
Publisher		Eurotrade print
Publication year		2000
Volume		str. 165
ISBN		961-90865-809
Language		slo
Abstract		Mankind has been confronted with countless difficulties from the very beginning, but worry about health and fear of death have always taken first place. Concern for health, in face, was the very struggle for survival. There is little data for the most distant past about this, but that which has been preserved testimony to mankinds efforts to alleviate sickness and incapacity. We have similarly few written records about the health of people in the Middle Ages. There were no medical institutions here yet. Physicians were untrained and they treated not the common folk but only the aristocracy and bourgeoisie. Simple people were left to deal with their own health problems and largely relied on their own resources. Various folk doctors appeared, who relied on their scanty knowledge and the aid of saints and intercessors, especially during epidemics. Their treatment was based on various in cantations, plague prayers and intercessions, and they organised processions and pilgrimages. Folk medicine flourished, founded on many ceremonial procedures which were supposed to overcome evil spirits, the cause of illness. Mental patients were not treated but the evil spirits driven from them. People were sure that they were possessed not ill. Because the causes of illness were unknown, people belived in magicians and witches. Many died because of unhygienic conditions and poverty, especially children, and many more succumbed to infectious diseases. Average life expectancy was low, those over forty were already considered old. Municipal poorhouses for the impoverished, disabled and sick began to be established in the 14th century. So-called "parish house" were retained right up to the second world war in many Prekmurjan villages. Alms houses-the precursors of hospitals-were also built in cities. Mention must be made of monastery healthcare. (Abstract truncated at 2000 characters.)
Descriptors		HEALTH SERVICES HEALTH CARE HOSPITALS AMBULATORY CARE INSURANCE, HEALTH PHARMACIES TUBERCULOSIS DISEASE OUTBREAKS MEDICINE, TRADITIONAL TRACHOMA DIARRHEA CHOLERA VARIOLA VIRUS PLAGUE VITAL STATISTICS