USSR: public health pioneer

An exhibit at Yale’s Cushing/Whitney Medical Library in October presented viewers with an unusual spectacle—the first health campaign to create an education program using posters designed for use by the public. Developed by graphic designers and artists working with doctors in the Soviet Union in the 1920s, the campaign sought to diminish the incidence of syphilis among an overwhelmingly rural and uneducated population. While reliable numbers are difficult to come by, one assumes that the public health campaign made some headway in reducing transmission of the disease.