3.2: Early Community Health Measures
There is evidence of early societies taking steps to reduce and treat illnesses, particularly as hunter-gatherers evolved into agricultural communities. Writings from ancient China, India, and Egypt record medical practices and documentation of diseases, laws and building codes, and agricultural practices used to prevent infectious disease spread. Many health-related laws were tied to religious beliefs, as evidenced in the Hebrew Mosaic Law which listed rules for personal and community hygiene, food preparation, waste disposal, and isolation of the sick. The Greeks are credited with originating medical philosophy and ethics, and although religion was still closely tied to medicine, there began to be a recognition of environmental factors as causes for disease. These philosophies were continued by the Romans, who developed aqueducts to deliver fresh water to cities and sewage systems to carry waste away. Many of the public health traditions like urban planning and organized medical care can be traced back to the Romans (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014, pp. 1–4). In all of these ancient societies, there were stark differences in health, and both length and quality of life depending on ethnicity, wealth, class, enslaved status, and gender.