The People's Health - Public Health in Australia, 1950 to the Present. Contributions in Medical Studies, Number 49, Volume 2. (Electronic book text)

This second volume on the history of public health in Australia completes the story of the conception and evolution of medicine in the island nation. Whereas volume one details the period from 1788 when Europeans first settled on the east coast of the island until just after World War II, this book carries the story to the end of the twentieth century with the notion of a social view of public health. While health care in the first era was characterized by a focus on disease and mortality patterns very much shaped by communicable diseases, the second period was marked by the need to respond to chronic, "degenerative" diseases of an aging population, along with "emerging" infections, in particular HIV/AIDS. Recent years have also seen the emergence of new concerns such as genetically-modified foods and the role of public health in response to bioterrorism.