Tuberculosis and Polio

Poliomyelitis and Tuberculosis were the focus of nurses’ care in some countries in the 1950s. In 1950, an ICN group visited Denmark on a fact-finding mission for nurses interested in Tuberculosis care and Tuberculosis treatment, especially in relation to the prevention of Tuberculosis and to BCG vaccination. The trip was supported and facilitated by the Danish Nurses Organization. Visits took place to various institutions in Zealand, included field visits to sanatoria for children and adults suffering with Tuberculosis and to seaside hospitals. This visit was organised following ICN’s Exchange of Nurses Committee Resolution accepted by the Grand Council in Stockholm, which recommended that consideration should be given to arranging group journeys to study health conditions. (ICN 1950)

In 1959, ICN’s Deputy General Secretary, Gwen Buttery attended the 15th International Tuberculosis Conference held in Istanbul, Turkey at which 62 countries were represented. This was the first time ICN had been invited to attend. There was an agenda proposal to create a new section within the International Union against Tuberculosis for nurses and social workers. It was hoped that the aim of eradication of the disease would be achieved through more nurses being drawn into the Union’s activities by closer cooperation with ICN. Buttery addressed the conference remarking that a new section was not needed but that the Union could introduce its aims by fostering closer links with ICN, the recognised nursing organisation. Because of this ICN intervention, the Union proposed that nurses be included to serve on the Unions Technical Committee where appropriate (De Jong 1958)

Nurses in membership with ICN and working on WHO programmes continued to care for children with Poliomyelitis. In 1958, nurses worked on the WHO programme the Plight of Poliomyelitis in the Middle East-WHO Support (1955-57) that had been set up for children suffering from Poliomyelitis. These children were being cared for by trained physiotherapists in a Lebanese centre for the rehabilitation of handicapped children in order to help polio victims regain the use of their limbs, through hydrotherapy. WHO assisted this project during 1956 and in the early part of 1957. Ellen Broe, FNIF’s Frist Director, visited Lebanon in 1958, where she learned about how children suffering from Poliomyelitis were being taken care and of and the need for national and international study and research to master this disease. WHO facilitated the exchange of information between researchers studying the Polio virus and who were trying to develop vaccines to prevent this merciless disease.

ICN (1950) Grand Council of the ICN meeting in Stockholm: Resolution No 15: Recommended consideration should be given to arranging group journeys to study health conditions The International Nursing Bulletin (1950) Vol VI (1):22)

De Jong F (1958). New outlook for long term Tuberculosis patients International Nursing Review (1958) P.. 48,

Strengthening ICN Relationship with WHO

During the 1950s, ICN relationships were strengthened with governmental organisations and NGOs including WHO. Representation continued at meetings in the UN Headquarters with the support of the American Nurses’ Association. Close contact continued with the Nursing Section of WHO and a relationship was established with the ILO relating to the conditions of nurses. This collaboration culminated in 1959 in the ICN report Employment and Conditions of Work of Nurses which was sent to ICN member nurse associations in 63 countries.

In 1949, in the first year of WHO’s existence, its staff numbered 400, representing 41 nationalities and recorded membership of 57 countries. Most of those countries were suffering from the Influenza epidemic. Authority for field work had been transferred to regional offices and, while large scale planning of field operations remained in WHO Headquarters in Geneva, operational field operations were based in New Delhi, for the South East Asia region, in Alexandria for the Eastern Mediterranean region, and in Washington for the Americas region. Other regional offices were being created in Europe, Africa and the Western Pacific areas. WHO also maintained an Epidemiological Intelligence Station in Singapore.

WHO had been an interim organisation up to then, carrying out essential duties mainly inherited from the League of Nations. The WHO Expert Committee on Maternal and Child Health requested that mass immunisation campaigns against Diphtheria, Whooping Cough and other childhood diseases, that were causing high mortality, be carried out in each country. The first international medical research was undertaken in Copenhagen in connection with BCG vaccination in Europe and elsewhere. Tuberculosis surveys were being conducted by WHO in 10 Eastern Mediterranean countries and in Central and South America. Malaria control projects had begun in Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. On the basis of worldwide statistical analyses compiled by WHO, the world’s death rate had reached its lowest figure in recorded history. (WHO 1950)

The Second Assembly of WHO met in Rome, in June 1950, during which it instructed the Director-General to appoint an Expert Committee on nursing which would meet during 1950. Two nurses were appointed to WHO headquarters secretariat in Geneva, during July and August 1949, and preparations were made for an early meeting of the committee in 1950. Daisy Bridges, Executive Secretary of ICN, was co-opted on to this committee.

Expert Committees played an important role in WHO’s reporting to the Assembly and thus providing advice on the technical aspects of health problems. ICN and the League of Red Cross Societies had official relationship with WHO and it was envisaged that further work would be undertaken to establish co-operative relationships on the exchange of activity between these organisations. (Baggallay 1950) From 20-26 February 1950, the Expert Nursing Committee met in Geneva and recommended that measures to alleviate the worldwide shortage of nurses be undertaken and that studies at national and international levels on the factors preventing the recruitment of nurses should commence. Competition for places, salaries, living conditions, and customs and practices were mentioned as possible causes. The study group should include psychologists and sociologists. Governments should also be encouraged to consider minority group and immigrants. Daisy Bridges was ICN’s representative on this committee (ICN 1950)

The fourth WHO Assembly opened in Geneva on 7 May 1951. ICN, being in official relationship with WHO since 1948 as an NGO, was represented by Bridges and Marjorie Duvillard, Director of Le Bon Secour School of Nursing, Geneva. During the Assembly, the WHO Director-General reviewed the progress of the organisation over the previous year and called for particular attention to be paid to venereal disease control, anti-malarial projects and the expansion of maternal and child health services. Following the plenary session, the Advisory group discussed undergraduate medical education, training of public health personnel and training of auxiliary personnel. (ICN 1951)

In 1951, the international meeting of the ICN Board of Directors was held in Brussels to discuss the Terms of Agreement between ICN and WHO. Delegates from 21 member countries were present. In the Terms of Agreement, already signed between ICN and WHO, ICN had agreed to carry out a Study of Advanced Programmes for Nursing Education throughout the world, and to make findings available to WHO as well as to its own members. The study was being undertaken by the FNIF, under the direction of Ellen Broe, its director. Other matters discussed related to the International Refugee Organisation. Since June 1950, ICN had assumed responsibility for the Displaced Persons of Nurses Professional Register which had been taken over from the International Refugee Organisation under the guidance of Alice Sher.

The fifth World Health Assembly opened at the Palais des Nations, Geneva on 5 May 1952 and was attended by the ICN Executive Director, Gwen Buttery, and by Madame Germane Vernet, President of the Association of Suisse des Infirmﺍères et Infirmiers Diplomeés. Dr. Brock Chisholm, WHO Director General, on presenting the Annual Report, which covered the activities of the organisation during 1951, spoke on the need for all assisting governments to mobilise as economically and as efficiently as possible the resources needed to raise the health standards of their people. He spoke about WHO developments during its third full year of work that included the introduction of directing and coordinating authority and decentralisation which had begun in 1949 and that had then been completed and on how the co-ordinating role of WHO had placed huge unforeseen strains on the organisation. (ICN 1952)

At the ICN tenth Quadrennial Congress in Petropolis, Brazil in July 1953, the relationship between WHO and professional nursing was presented by Lyle Creelman, one of the first WHO official nursing representatives to attend an ICN Congress. She succinctly outlined the commencement of nursing in WHO confirming that, at the first meeting of the World Health Assembly in Geneva in 1948, there was a long discussion on the role of nursing and the need for well qualified nurses in the development of health services. She continued by confirming that, at the following meeting in 1949, the resolution was passed establishing an Expert Committee on Nursing, and that two nurses who had already been appointed to the Headquarters Secretariat had been appointed to the Expert Committee in the Public Health Administration and Maternal and Child Health Sections. Later, a nursing section was set up within WHO with Olive Baggallay as the Chief.

Creelman acknowledged the valuable contribution and support of ICN during meetings at which ICN clearly stated the desire of nurses to assume their responsibilities in the field of international health as it had been one of the first non-governmental agencies to receive relationship with WHO and had the right through representation to speak for professional nursing and to attend as observer meetings of WHO Regional Committees. 30 nurses from 12 countries sat on the WHO Nursing Advisory Panel at that time, which was chaired by the Executive Secretary of ICN. (73) This collaboration signified that progress was being made between ICN and WHO that would lead to improving working relations in future decades.

WHO (1950) WHO Highlights of 1949, The International Nursing Bulletin (1950) Vol VI (1): 6-7

Baggallay, O. (1950) Nursing in the WHO. The International Nursing Bulletin (1950) Vol VI (1):9).

Second Assembly of the WHO (1950) Baggallay, O. (1950) Nursing in the WHO. The International Nursing Bulletin (1950) Vol VI (1):9)

ICN (1950) Measures to alleviate the world-wide shortage of nurses The International Nursing Bulletin (1950) Vol VI (2):7.

ICN (1952) The Fifth World Health Assembly, Palais des Nations, Geneva The International Nursing Bulletin (1952) Vol VIII (2)2).