On Dysentery, Varicella, Syphilis, Scarlet Fever and Typhus in the Province of Istria during the Italian Administration Between the Two World Wars (1918–1940)

Sa？etak The paper offers – through printed sources, including the death statistics of the Kingdom of Italy, archival material (State Archive in Pazin, State Archive in Rijeka, State Archive in Trieste, Archive of the Pula General Hospital), and newspapers (L'Azione, Corriere Istriano, L'Istria agricola, Istarski list, Istarska rije？) – a reconstruction of the trend of the mortality rate due to dysentery, varicella, syphilis, scarlet fever and typhus in the province of Istria during the Italian administration between the two World Wars. The social character of the said diseases is emphasised, and the data are compared with the state statistics and the Trieste and Rijeka provinces, which – together with Istria (and Gorica) – formed the Venezia Giulia Region. The said diseases – though to a lesser extent than tuberculosis and malaria – burdened Istrian municipalities demographically, socially and economically, while the permanently high mortality and morbidity rates, especially in individual epidemic years, indicate to long-lasting processes inherited from the previous, Austrian administration, which would continue to create a social and health problem for the new Italian authority. Combating these diseases would largely depend on medical education and mastering the modernisation challenges – primarily introducing the water supply system, as well as on the measures of the organisation of medical service and introducing new drugs