Schenectday's Battle Against Contagious Disease

by Martin A. Strosberg, James M. Strosberg

Diseases are often thought of as local; until they aren’t. And infectious diseases win the prize for spreading rapidly, and widely. This engaging book [...] tells this story of infectious diseases and their control in Schenectady, beginning when Schenectady was on America’s early frontier. The lessons learned and applied became commonplace and were relevant to the general maturation and development of ‘public health’ – as measures to protect life, and eventually as a collection of critical disciplines largely responsible for dramatically raising average life expectancy. They began this treatise before the onset of Covid-19; and illustrate how we have had to learn some of the basic lessons of disease control all over again. This is a noteworthy tale that will illuminate many of the arguments still brewing today. -Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS, Dean Emeritus & University Distinguished Service Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Martin A. Strosberg, MPH, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at Union College and also at Clarkson University where he taught and published in the fields of healthcare policy and bioethics. He is the former director of the Union College and the Union Graduate College MBA Program in Healthcare Management. For many years he has chaired the Schenectady County Public Health Advisory Board. He is a Union College graduate and is currently serving on the Board of the Schenectady County Historical Society. James M. Strosberg, MD, practiced rheumatology at Sunnyview Rehabilitation Hospital for 34 years. He is a past Chief of Medicine at Ellis Hospital and past President of the Schenectady County Medical Society where he also served as its historian. He was Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine (Rheumatology) at Albany Medical College. He is a member of the Medical Reserve Corp of the Schenectady County Public Health Services. He is a Union College graduate and has served on the Board of the Schenectady County Historical Society.

Perfect Paperback

Published March 16, 2021

Reviews

[Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had me saying “that is so cool!” over and over again as well as continuing to repeat so many learnt facts to my wife. It has me now extremely interested in reading more local history. And as a public health professional who was involved in the early COVID-19 response in the capital region, it felt pretty surreal to see that written about as did knowing that so much was to change regarding the pandemic following the publication of the book.