Tackling the ‘Hideous Scourge’: The Creation of the Venereal Disease Treatment Centres in Early Twentieth-Century Britain

Abstract

This paper explores the history of the 1913 Royal Commission on Venereal Disease (VD) and the creation of the VD treatment centres. Prior to the Royal Commission little provision existed in the UK for the treatment of civilians with VD. The Royal Commission was established in response to increasing pressure from doctors, feminists and the wider social hygiene movement. In 1916 the Commission recommended the creation of state funded VD treatment centres and the provision of moral instruction. Previous historical work has emphasized the Commission's strategy of ‘moral prophylaxis’. It is argued here that the new treatment centres stood at the core of the Commission's prevention strategy. The government accepted the Commission's recommendations and the treatment centres were established from early 1917. The Local Government Board took innovative action in going beyond the Commission's recommendations and compelling local authorities to provide the new VD service. The study concludes that despite the difficulty in assessing their long-term impact on public health, the treatment centres represented a significant extension of state health services.

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