Ontario. Provincial Board of Health. Division of Venereal Disease Control

• Division of Venereal Disease Control

Before the First World War, prevention and control of venereal diseases received no special attention in either Ontario or the country as a whole. Conditions in the Army focussed attention on the question. Through the efforts of an Honorary Advisory Committee in Military District #2, and the Toronto Academy of Medicine, an Ontario Royal Commission was appointed under the Hon. Mr. Justice Hodgins in 1917. As a result of the Interim Report of the Royal Commission (February 20, 1918), the Government passed a Venereal Diseases Prevention Act in 1918.

An Order-in-Council dated October 11, 1919 appointed Dr. R. R. McClenahan for temporary duty as Assistant Chief Medical Officer of Health in charge of treating prisoners suffering from venereal diseases in Burwash and Mercer Reformatories, and a Division of Venereal Diseases was formed in 1919. The Division assisted local hospitals and boards of health in establishing Venereal Disease Clinics ("special clinics") under section 5 of the Act, with capital and equipment grants and continued supportive grants on a patient-served basis.

In 1920, the Provincial Board of Health obtained a licence to produce its own specific vaccine to be provided free to the V.D. clinics. The work of the Division was broadened to include the monitoring, assessment, prevention and control of tuberculosis and all other preventable diseases, and by an Order-in-Council dated October 10, 1922, the Division's name was changed from the Division of Venereal Disease to the Division of Preventable Diseases in order to reflect its new mandate and scope of activities.

The function of the Division of Venereal Disease Control was to educate people within the health profession and schools in Ontario. The Division was responsible for distributing financial assistance in the form of subsidies and grants to local health units in the control and treatment of venereal diseases. It also provided consultative services for physicians for the diagnosis, treatment and management of V.D. cases, maintained a central V.D. register, and assisted local boards of health and local medical officers of health to carry out the requirements of the Venereal Diseases Prevention Act.

Venereal Diseases Prevention Act, 1918

RAD: Rules for Archival Description, 2nd edn (2008)

2026-11-16: migrated to AtoM

Annual Report of the Provincial Board of Health, 1918-1924

Archivist(s):
Chang