The Pula daily L’Azione (Corriere Istriano) on the health conditions in the interwar period (1919 – 1940) – An overview of certain problems

Abstract

The paper deals with the reports published in the Pula daily newspaper L’Azione (since 1929 Corriere Istriano) on Istrian health conditions in the period between the two World Wars. The research is manifested in an analysis of numerous articles, organised in separate chapters, depending on their purpose and contents. The following problems are elaborated: 1) activities of health care facilities; 2) tuberculosis and malaria as the greatest challenge of Istrian health care system; 3) educational articles informing the readers about possibilities of prevention and cure of various diseases; 4) promotional and marketing material related to pharmaceutical industry products. It must be noted that most of the information contained in the newspaper relates to urban areas located mostly along the western coast of the Istrian peninsula, where the influence of Italian elements and culture was strongest, but also where the Fascist regime had concentrated its institutional and intellectual potential. Appalling health conditions in the country, mostly inhabited by the Croatian and Slovenian element, were scarcely dealt with. This points to the marginalisation of the village (in this case concerning the media and information), even when it came to the basic life issues, such as health care and sanitary conditions which were, without any doubt, the worst in those areas ever since the Pre-Fascist period.