MEDICINE AND HEALTH: IMPORTANT EVENTS IN THE 1960s

I960

Feb.: Frank L. Horsfall, Jr., M.D., becomes director of the prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Laborer Billy Smith has a severed leg reimplanted but with only temporary success.
Apr.: A breast implant is made from silicone gel in a plastic bag.
Debate continues over killed-versus live-virus polio vaccines.
May: Oral contraceptive pills are approved for widespread use in the United States.
July: Measles vaccine developed by Dr. John Enders of Harvard shows promise in early tests.
Oct.: Graft used to replace a portion of the aorta.
Percentage of babies delivered by Cesarean section doubles in twenty years to between 5 and 6 percent.
Dec.: Foreign-trained doctors are required to pass special tests to practice in the United States.

1961

Mar.

U.S. Supreme Court asked to overturn repressive Connecticut law preventing distribution of contraceptive advice or devices.

Apr.

California recognizes equivalency between osteopaths and M.D.'s.

Teenage syphilis and gonorrhea epidemics reported.

May

Drs. Jack Kevorkian and Glenn Bylsma use blood from a cadaver to give a trans-fusion.

Intrauterine contraceptive devices are developed as a new form of birth control.

Vaccination announced for mothers with Rh-negative blood to prevent their antibodies from affecting future pregnancies.

Nov.

Application to approve thalidomide, a sedative, is retracted when it is discovered that the drug causes severe birth defects.

1962

Dr. Irving S. Cooper pioneers cryosurgery (freezing) in the brain.
Harrington rod operation described to cure scoliosis (excessive curvature of the spine).
Multiple-agent therapy (radiation, chemotherapy, and steroids) used for leukemia.
Burroughs-Wellcome Company markets the drug Allopurinol to prevent attacks of gout.

June: Everett Knowles, Jr., has a severed arm successfully reimplanted.
Various government proposals are considered to give all the elderly adequate health insurance.
Sept.: Rubella virus isolated.
Dec.: First human kidney transplant using a nonrelative as a donor takes place.

1963

Roche introduces the drug Valium.
Body-function recorders are used in postoperative care to monitor patients.
The measles vaccine is announced.

May: The first human liver transplant is performed.
Several intrauterine contraceptive devices are approved for general use.
June: First human lung transplant is performed.

1964

Jan.

The first human heart transplant is performed using a chimpanzee donor.

The surgeon general declares cigarette smoking a health hazard.

Kidney dialysis at home introduced.

Mar.

Joseph Goodman from Connecticut becomes the first American to die (on Miami Beach) of Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish stings.

Drs. Blakemore and Sengstaken begin using a two-part balloon to stop stomach bleeding in patients with liver disease.

Apr.

Sterling Drug Company of New Jersey produces the hundred billionth Bayer aspirin tablet.

July

Sen. Ted Kennedy fractures his spine in an air crash.

In Saint Louis women are allowed to give birth without general anesthesia.

New fertility drug Pergonal is introduced. Twins, triplets, and other multiple births are common.

A million abortions per year are done in the United States, most of them illegally.

Rubella reaches epidemic proportions in the United States.

1965

The female hormone estrogen is found to prevent bone degeneration (osteoporosis).
Rubella epidemic of 1963-1964 caused twenty thousand children to be born with birth defects.

Jan.: One and a half million Americans have been sterilized for birth control.
Soft contact lenses are invented.
Mar.: A computerized blood bank is set up in New York City (the New York Blood Center).
Artificial hearts are being developed at three sites in the United States.
May: "Surfer's knees" is described as a medical consequence of kneeling on surf boards.

1966

A live-virus rubella vaccine is first developed.
Coronary-artery blockage is treated by surgically bypassing the blocked vessel with a vein from the patient's leg (coronary-artery bypass surgery).

Jan.

Dermatoglyphics (palm prints) are used in the diagnosis of congenital defects.

Mar.

An epidemic of children with thyroid disease is reported in Saint George, Utah, downwind from the Nevada nuclear test site.

Brooklyn surgeons use a gas jet to remove blockages from arteries.

A stapling device is marketed that closes incisions rapidly during surgery.

July

Medicare begins to provide coverage for Americans over sixty-five years old.

1967

The fertility drug clomiphene is marketed.
Authorities in Evanston, Illinois, report that fluoridated water reduced cavities 58 percent over twenty years.

May

Colorado becomes the first state to liberalize abortion laws.

A live-virus measles vaccine is developed.

Cook County Hospital, Chicago, hooks up a cystoscope (to look in the bladder) to a color television and videotape machine.

The drug LSD is held to produce chromosome breaks.

Leprosy is grown in the lab using an armadillo.

No American died of rabies in 1967, for the first year since records were kept.

1968

A meningitis vaccine is developed and tested on military recruits.

Jan.

Malnutrition among U.S. poor is just as severe as in developing countries, according to the Public Health Service.

Feb.

Alcohol is found to be the best inhibitor of premature labor.

Tests of a new German-measles vaccine show it is safe and effective.

Nude group psychotherapy is reportedly being used in Los Angeles.

Mar.

A kidney-storage unit is announced that can save donor kidneys awaiting trans-plant for up to three days.

Transplanting organs is reported to transplant the donor's cancer as well.

May

"Supermales," with an extra male (Y) chromosome, are linked to violent crimes.

The injectable drug Depo-Provera can provide contraception for three months per dose.

June

RhoGAM, for Rh-negative mothers, is marketed.

Oct.

The FDA bans cyclamates (a sugar substitute), which cause cancer in lab animals.

1969

Hysterectomies, especially in women under forty, are reported to be often unnecessary.
MIST (Medical Information Telephone System) for consultations between doctors is started by Alabama Medical College dean, Clifton K. Meador.
Rubella vaccine is approved for general distribution.
Louisville pediatrician Billy Andrews develops a new incubator for premature babies.

4 Apr.: First artificial heart implant.