Title: What was the demographic history of STIs in the era of historic fertility decline? - Can we estimate the changing prevalence of venereal disease in modern British history?

Abstract

STIs and their capacity for widespread demographic impact is of course a major topic for research and monitoring today in relation to HIV/AIDs. However, it is much more difficult to evaluate the nature of such impact during the prolonged period of modern history when the venereal diseases of syphilis and gonorrhoea were the principal STIs. Although they comprise such important diseases, in relation to both mortality and fertility, historical demographers have not published any estimates of historic trends in the prevalence of venereal diseases. This paper offers a discussion of an attempt to produce prevalence estimates for the English population  before the Great War.

Short biography

Simon Szreter, M.A. Ph.D, is Professor of History and Public Policy in the History Faculty, University of Cambridge and Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. In 1996 he was a Visiting Fellow at the Demography Department, ANU. He is a co-founder of the History and Policy Network and Chief Editor of www.historyandpolicy.org. His main fields of teaching and research are demographic, social and economic history and the relationship between history, development and contemporary public policy. In 2009 he was awarded the Viseltear Prize by the American Public Health Association for outstanding contribution to the history of public health.

His principal publications are:

Fertility, Class and Gender in Britain 1860-1940 (Cambridge University Press 1996)

Changing Family Size in England and Wales 1891-1911: Place, Class and Demography (co-authored with Eilidh Garrett, Alice Reid, Kevin Schurer; Cambridge University Press 2001)

Categories and Contexts. Anthropological and Historical Studies in Critical Demography (co-edited with Hania Sholkamy and A. Dharmalingam; Oxford University Press 2004)

Health and Wealth. Studies in History and Policy (Rochester University Press 2005)

Sex Before the Sexual Revolution, Intimate Life in England 1918-1963 (co-authored with Kate Fisher; Cambridge University Press 2010)

History, Historians and Development Policy. A Necessary Dialogue (co-edited with Chris Bayly, Michale Woolcock, Biju Rao; Manchester University Press 2011)

The Big Society Debate. A New Agenda for Social Welfare? (co-edited with Armine Ishkanian; Edward Elgar 2012.

Registration and Recognition. Documenting the Person in World History (co-edited with Keith Breckenridge; Oxford University Press for British Academy 2012)