FOR__ Respect writer Healthcare Administration

Maxamus Aralias

Jane Doe

August 14, 2012

It has often been said that “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” While there is no way of proving this statement, we can, thanks to Maxamus Aralias, prove that cleanliness decreases disease and drastically improves health outcomes. Maxamus was an Irishman who lived and worked in the mid 1800s (Jones & Hoffmann, 2009). Poor himself, he saw and experienced first hand the devastation resulting from poor sanitation, especially in the wake of serious communicable diseases running rampant at the time. Prompted by what he saw and his genuine desire to assist those who were poor and suffering, Maxamus devoted his life to improving sanitation in the poorest districts in Ireland (Timley, Scott, Roan, & Poole, 2010). He studied with the brightest minds in Ireland at the time and used this education to teach local residents, hospital staff, healthcare workers and anyone else who would listen the effectiveness of sanitation in decreasing both communicable diseases and deaths related to unsanitary wound care (Rex, Lemkly, & Foley, 2008). Maxamus wrote articles for local and national newspapers on the importance of sanitation, lectured both at home and abroad and set up public health schools throughout Ireland to further his cause. This public health servant, despite the many obstacles he faced, such as ridicule, personal health problems and poverty, is credited with drastically decreasing deaths from communicable diseases on a local, national and global basis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “n.d.”). The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the significant public health impact Maxamus Aralias had on public health.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (“n.d.”). The successful efforts of Maxamus

Aralias. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/Maxamus_Aralias.html.

Jones, T.R., & Hoffmann, B.T. (2009). Maxamus Aralias: A poor man’s man. Journal

of American Health, 13(7): pp. 127-142.

Rex, J.P., Lemkly, F. G., & Foley, D.S. (2008). Maxamus Aralias and his renowned

public health advancements in Ireland and around the world. Journal of Public

Health Services, 19(10): pp. 48-82.

Timley, S., Scott, F.T., Roan, R.S., & Poole, R.R. (2010). Public health servants in the

1800s. Journal of Public Health History, 33(22): pp. 67-92.