Origins and Evolution of Drug Regulation

Abstract

It is easy, in this modern age, to forget the fear and trepidation surrounding infectious disease that has ruled humanity from antiquity. Diseases that were epidemic such as flea-borne bubonic plague, as well as water-borne ailments including typhoid, mosquito-borne malaria, viral-borne small pox and polio were highly feared. Infections that occurred sporadically as endemic in nature included rabies, lockjaw, botulism, and anthrax and were terrifying prospects that could arise from relatively minor scrapes (a dog bite, stepping on a nail, eating contaminated food, or from breathing spores, respectively). Improved sanitation practices allowed people to avoid contracting many illnesses and, eventually, vaccination greatly reduced the worst microbial and viral diseases. By the turn of the twentieth century, the public began to expect that the federal government should provide regulation of food and drugs and otherwise contribute to the public welfare via legislation. In a reactionary manner, these regulatory efforts proceeded in fits and starts, usually as a counter to specific tragedies.