PRIM. DR. ANTE ŠVALBA (1903.–1989.), PROMICATELJ SOCIJALNE MEDICINE I JAVNOG ZDRAVSTVA

Abstract

When a healthcare professional sticks to one area of activity, such as protection of human environment, for his entire career, he must leave an indelible mark on his colleagues and local population. Dr Ante Švalba was this kind of a man; he was a physician specialised in hygiene, who persisted in his commitment to improve public health in the wide Rijeka area for nearly sixty active years. He was a true field worker and tireless educator dedicated to improving health culture in all age groups, but especially in schoolchildren. For decades, and nearly to the day he died, he was active in Red Cross work. Ante Švalba was born in Rijeka, and completed primary and secondary school in Rijeka and Sušak, respectively. He graduated from the School of Medicine in Zagreb in 1927. For three years he worked at the School of Public Health in Zagreb, and between 1931 and 1942 he was town physician of Sušak, until he was interned in Italy with his family. When Italy capitulated he went to Bari and joined anti-fascist resistance. In a place called Grumo he set up a hospital and a medical corps school of the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. Having returned to Rijeka, he performed a number of healthcare public offices, of which sanitation inspection was the longest lasting. When he retired in 1965, he took up a position of the head of Hygiene and Epidemiology Department of the Community Health Centre of Opatija until 1972.