| 1805 |
| Board of Health met for the first time in April |
| |
| 1842 |
| City gets fresh water from Croton reservoir |
| |
| 1850 |
| Leading cause of death: tuberculosis |
| |
| 1866 |
| State Legislature enacted a bill providing for a Metropolitan Board of Health |
| |
| 1870 |
| Health Department created with 4 administrative bureaus |
| |
| 1870s |
| Commissioner Chandler appoints first milk inspector, opens laboratory |
| |
| 1884 |
| Department creates Division of Food Inspection and Offensive Trades |
| |
| 1892 |
| Bureau of Laboratories opens (first bacteriological lab) |
| |
| 1904 |
| Department opens Tuberculosis clinics |
| |
| 1905 |
| Leading cause of death: pneumonia |
| |
| 1907 |
| “Typhoid Mary” is traced, confined at North Brother Island |
| |
| 1915 |
| Bureau of Public Health Education created |
| |
| 1916 |
| Department imposes quarantines and sets up clinics during polio epidemic |
| |
| 1928 |
| Bureau of Nursing created
|
| |
| 1935 |
| Ground broken for DOH Headquarters at 125 Worth Street |
| |
| 1947 |
| 6.3 million vaccinated against smallpox |
| |
| 1949 |
| Pieces of literature distributed at APHA convention: 52,500
Telephone requests for information: 645
Individual requests for information via mail: 2,736 |
| |
| 1954 |
| Salk vaccine developed and tested in NYC |
| |
| 1954 |
| New York City Community Mental Health Board created |
| |
| 1954 |
| Leading cause of death: Heart disease |
| |
| 1969 |
| Lead Poisoning Prevention Program begins |
| |
| 1969 |
| Dept. of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Alcoholism
Services is established |
| |
| 1976 |
| Window Guards law passed |
| |
| 1981 |
| Rare cancer, later known as the AIDS virus, is detected among
gay men |
| |
| 1983 |
| Office of Gay and Lesbian Health is formed |
| |
| 1985 |
| DOH begins offering free, anonymous AIDS tests |
| |
| 1988 |
| Needle exchange program implemented to curb HIV among injecting drug users |
| |
| 1990 |
| New York, New York initiative to create housing for the homeless
mentally ill is established |
| |
| 1991 |
| Programs begun to improve asthma treatment for children |
| |
| 1993 |
| AIDS incidence peaks with more than 12,600 new cases |
| |
| 1993 |
| Reinvestment Law is passed. Transfers State funds from
psychiatric hospital closures into community based services for the mentally |
| |
| 1992-96 |
| Multi Drug resistant tuberculosis epidemic stopped |
| |
| 1996 |
| Citywide Immunization Registry established, requiring doctors to report all childhood immunizations and decreasing vaccine-preventable illness in children |
| |
| 1999 |
| Disease detectives track West Nile virus |
| |
| 2001 |
| DOHMH responds to September 11 |
| |
| 2001 |
| DOHMH responds to anthrax attacks |
| |
| 2002 |
| World Trade Center Health Registry is launched |
| |
| 2002 |
| The merger of DOH and the Department of Mental Health, Mental
Retardation and Alcoholism Services |
| |
| 2003 |
| Smoke Free Air Act takes effect, banning smoking in most indoor places including bars and restaurants |
| |
| 2003
|
| District Public Health Offices open in Brooklyn, Harlem and the Bronx
|
| |
| 2003 |
| Leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, flu/pneumonia, diabetes
|
| |
| 2004 |
| Take Care NY
|
| |
| 2004 |
| Pieces of literature distributed: 4.2 million
Telephone requests for information: 137,373
Individual requests for information through website: 80,000
|
| |
| 2005 |
| Several syringe exchange programs open for the first time in Queens |
| |
| 2005 |
| Bicentennial Celebration of the Board of Health |
| |
