Andrija Štampar (1 September 1888 – 26 June 1958) was a distinguished scholar in the field of

social medicine The field of social medicine seeks to implement social care through # understanding how social and economic conditions impact health, disease and the practice of medicine and # fostering conditions in which this understanding can lead to a health ...

from

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

Education

Štampar was born 1 September 1888 in Brodski Drenovac (part of

Pleternica Pleternica is a town in the region of Slavonia, Croatia, southeast of Požega, in the Požega Valley (''Požeška kotlina''). The population of the municipality is 11,323, with 3,418 in Pleternica itself (2011). Pleternica is located at the con ...

), at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in modern

Požega-Slavonia County Požega-Slavonia County ( hr, Požeško-slavonska županija ) is a Croatian county in western Slavonia. Its capital is Požega. Its population was 78,034 at the 2011 census. Alongside the City of Zagreb and Bjelovar-Bilogora County, it is one ...

. From 1898 to 1906, he attended grammar school in

Vinkovci Vinkovci () is a city in Slavonia, in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia. The city's registered population was 28,247 in the 2021 census, the total population of the city was 31,057, making it the largest town of the county. Surround ...

. During his secondary schooling, Štampar was a brilliant pupil and, at that time, he wrote his first literary attempt, published in the periodical ''Pobratim'' in 1902. He enrolled at the medical school in

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in 1906, which was at the time the most important medical center in the world. As a medical student, he initiated the editing of medical papers and wrote pamphlets and articles with the intention of educating people in health matters. In 1909 in

Nova Gradiška Nova Gradiška is a town located in the Brod-Posavina County of Croatia, population 14,229 (2011). It is located in the historic region of Slavonia, near the border to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first word in the name means ''New'', and there ...

he started publishing the series called ''Public Health Library'' discussing numerous topics regarding health and prevention. On 23 December 1911, he was awarded the title of Doctor of General Medicine (''doctor medicinae universae'').

Career

On 1 January 1912, Dr. Štampar started working at the town hospital at Karlovac and remained at this post until 8 August 1913. He enrolled in the Croatian Medical Association, an organization of physicians, and published a few articles in their journal. By a decree of the Župan, (Prefect) of the Požega District, he was appointed district health officer of Nova Gradiška in 1913. In 1919, he attended the Congress of Inter-Allied Countries for Social Hygiene in

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giving a lecture on children's health. It showed at that time that he had a clear concept of organizing the public health service. Andrija Štampar is universally known as "the man of action" . At age 31 he was named principal of the Department of Public Health in Belgrade. Thanks to Štampar's endeavours, a special Institute of Social Medicine was founded affiliated with the University of Zagreb School of Medicine. From 1924 he was the member of several international expert committees, which through his efforts received grants from the Rockefeller Foundation. King Alexander's dictatorship suddenly put a stop to his work at the Ministry of Public Health in 1930 and, in 1931, he was put on the retired list by the King's decree and came into personal conflict with King Alexander due to his refusal to enter the government. He was offered the portfolio of the Minister of the Interior, but he refused and asked for free elections as a condition.

International activities

From 1931 to 1933, Štampar was permanently employed as the expert of the

Health Organization Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

of the

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. He entered upon a new kind of work; study travels, extensive lecturing in different parts of the world, confronting health problems at the international level. From October 1931 until January 1932, Štampar was in the

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and

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as the guest of the Rockefeller Foundation. The

also entrusted him with the task of acquainting himself with the work of a special American Committee dealing with the costs of medical care. He also spent time in China, from 1933 to 1936. The Health Organization sent him as an advisor to help the Chinese health administration in the control of the mass infectious diseases that cropped up after devastating floods in 1931.

''Dr. Štampar has come to China to help our Government in its work on reconstruction based on the plan of technical cooperation with the League of Nations. He went round several provinces, from Kansu and Shanghai in the West to Kwangtung and Kwangsi in the South, and made a valuable contribution to the reconstruction of our villages, especially in the field of rural health protection services. On his departure we wish to give this to him as a remembrance of his work in China, hoping he will come to visit us again.''
-- Ching Feng

In 1936, he received an offer from the secretary general of the League of Nations for the post of an expert at the Health Organization in

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. In 1938, he received an invitation from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

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, where he delivered a lecture. After Boston, he toured a great part of North America and lectured on hygiene and social medicine at a series of universities (Yale, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Cincinnati, Vanderbilt, McHarry, Tulane, Texas, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Portland, Minnesota, Toronto, McGill, Columbia, Galvestone). The International Health Conference held in New York in the summer of 1946 was attended by the official representatives of 51 nations. With only a few minor alterations, they accepted the draft of the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

(WHO). The First World Health Assembly was called with the ratification of the WHO Constitution. It was in session from 24 June to 24 July 1948. in Geneva, Štampar was elected as the first president of the assembly unanimously. At the 8th regular session of WHO in

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, in 1955, Štampar was awarded the Leon Bernard Foundation Prize and Medal, the greatest international recognition of merit in the field of social medicine. A statue has been dedicated to Dr. Štampar in Morocco for his work in curing malaria.

Zagreb

Andrija Štampar founded the School of Public Health in Zagreb in 1927. By the decree of 5 March 1939, eight years after his election as full professor of hygiene and social medicine in Zagreb, he finally became a professor at

Zagreb University The University of Zagreb ( hr, Sveučilište u Zagrebu, ; la, Universitas Studiorum Zagrabiensis) is the largest Croatian university and the oldest continuously operating university in the area covering Central Europe south of Vienna and all of ...

. Elected by the council of the medical school in Zagreb, Štampar became the

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of the school for the academic year 1940/41. With the energy so characteristic of him, he set to work on the reform of medical training. On the third day of the occupation of Zagreb, Štampar was arrested by the Ustaša police. Released, he was arrested again by the

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police and sent to Graz, where he was imprisoned and interned until the arrival of the Soviet

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army ( Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, afte ...

. On his return in May 1945, he resumed his duty as professor of hygiene and social medicine at the medical school and became head of the School of Public Health in Zagreb. Štampar was the

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for the academic year 1945/46. In 1952, he was again elected the dean of the medical school, for 5 years consecutively. He also had an important role in founding of the medical school at Rijeka in 1955.

References

External links