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A century ago, open air schools fought disease

The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio
The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio
Episode • Oct 8, 2020 • 29m

In the early 1900s, tuberculosis was a huge public health crisis. It was widespread and it was deadly. And one of the ways people tried to keep children from getting TB back then was open air schools. Fast forward a hundred years to the coronavirus pandemic, and there are some interesting parallels between the public health response back then, and what we're all trying to do now to stay safe and stay healthy. Dr. Cindy Connolly is a Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, an associate director at the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the history of Nursing, and the author of a book about tuberculosis in the early 1900s in America and the effort to save sick kids. She joins the podcast to talk about the history open air schools and the similarities and differences in how we fight disease both now and a hundred years ago.

Find out more about Dr. Connolly's book about TB here: 

https://amzn.to/3itZQxb

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