JOURNAL AMHA - ACTA MEDICO-HISTORICA ADRIATICA

In this paper, the first 20 years of publication of the scientific journal AMHA - Acta medico-historica Adriatica (2002-2022) are presented and analysed. This journal has undoubtedly become and remained the central activity of the Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture, which has rapidly evolved into a globally esteemed journal in the history of medicine. The beginning and the context of publishing the journal with reference to the scientific conference "Rijeka and Its Citizens in Medical History" are presented, as well as the journal's profiling into a distinguished international scientific journal, co-publishing with the Faculty of Medicine (University of Rijeka) and its fast development in the later years. The analysis shows the growth of the journal's visibility through indexation in different international journal databases, the number and ratio of scientific articles and the variety of published material. Finally, a review of the potential future directions of development and the significance of this journal within the national, regional and international context is given.

The Labin Region, an ecologically vulnerable geographical area in Croatia: Mortality characteristics in an area polluted by industrial over a 40-year period.

The history of the Labin region in Croatia includes intensive industrial development with repercussions of pollution on environment and health. Assuming that prolonged exposure to polluted environments causes qualitative changes in mortality, the aim was to analyse the mortality characteristics of the population of the Labin Region for the 1968-2008 period based on data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. Public health and social opportunities in this geographical area carry a long-term burden of exposure to an industrial polluted environment with outcomes expressed by mortality or/and morbidity in the population. This study includes data on 11,903 deaths, most of which due to diseases of the circulatory, respiratory and digestive systems as well as neoplasms. In the third and fourth decade of the study period, a group of neoplasms showed significant increases, while the increase in respiratory diseases were more gradual. The female population died mostly from diseases of the circulatory and endocrine system as well as neoplasms, while the male population mainly died from diseases of the digestive system and external causes. This research provides guidelines that could create better public health, raising the quality of life and contribute to a future environmental protection in local communities by targeted policies.

HALF A CENTURY OF DEBT: SIME VLAHOVIC (1932­1977) AND IMMUNOLOGICAL PREPARATION OF THE FIRST KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION IN CROATIA / POLUSTOLJETNI DUG: SIME VLAHOVIC (1932. ­ 1977.) I IMUNOLOSKA PRIPREMA PRVE TRANSPLANTACIJE BUBREGA U HRVATSKOJ

Despite some earlier significant discoveries and widespread vaccination successful practices, the history of understanding immunological mechanisms is actually relatively short and associated only with the second half of the 20th century when, among other things, the laws of activation of these mechanisms are crucial for transplantation medicine. Among the first experts in Croatia who turned to these topics was Sime Vlahovic. Born in Split, he graduated and received his PhD in Zagreb. He worked on the problems of transplant immunology from 1963 to 1965 at the eminent centers in the United States. He was the head of the Rijeka Department of Physiology at the Faculty of Medicine from 1965 to 1977, since 1976 as a full professor. He was the winner of the Ruder Boskovic award and many others, but his crucial contribution to the medical heritage of Rijeka and Croatia is certainly less known. Based on family archives and memories, this work will attempt to at least partially correct that gap. Thanks to the immunological preparation of Sime Vlahovic, as well as, of course, a large team led by surgeon Vinko Franciskovic, in January 1971, the first kidney transplant was performed in Croatia from a living relative (mother to son), a year later from a cadaver, and in the decades following that, an experimental liver and pancreas transplant program has been developed in Rijeka. Today, we can only speculate about the intriguing directions of the development of the Rijeka Transplant and Immunology School, which would have been led by Sime Vlahovic, had he not passed away at the age of less than 45.

Saints and "Possession": A Case Review Bordering Ethnopsychiatry and Cultural Diversity.

The migrations of modern times have exposed psychiatrists and other medical experts to elements from other cultures which have to be recognised and discerned from pathology. In the present paper, we offer an overview of both historical and modern witnessings of various kinds of "possession", with shedding light on the whole process of diagnostics-taking into account all aspects that make a person as an individual: with particular emphasis on origin, lifestyle, moral values, and ethical norms what is sometimes easily associable with culture-bound phenomena, and sometimes overstepping the border of clinical disturbance, to maximise the possibility of recovery.

[XIX. Scientific conference "Rijeka and its citizens in Medical History", November 8, 2019] / XIX. Znanstveni skup "Rijeka i Rijecani u medicinskoj povjesnici"

The former villa of Archduke Joseph, today's State Archives in Rijeka, as a building of the protected cultural property of the City of Rijeka, once again hosted an international scientific conference "Rijeka and its Citizens in Medical History". It was the nineteenth scientific conference organized by the Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture, the State Archive in Rijeka and University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine. The first session closely connected the Rijeka part of medical historiography, with an emphasis on professions and health care systems of Rijeka, connecting it with its immediate surroundings, people and institutions on whose foundations modern Rijeka medicine rests, while the second session contained topics of wider historical medical range.

[18th Scientific conference Rijeka and its citizens in Medical History, November 9, 2018] / 18. Znanstveno-strucni skup: Rijeka i Rijecani u medicinskoj povjesnici

Scientific conference Rijeka and its citizens in Medical History as an 18th conference was met on November 9, 2018. Organized by the Croatian Scientific Society for the History of Health Culture, University of Rijeka, Faculty of Medicine and the State Archives in Rijeka. The eighteenth conference was held at the exhibition hall of the last, but not least organizer. The initiator of the gathering and the president of the Society prof. Ante Skrobonja with several introductory words about the long tradition of the gathering, as well as the Society, met the present with their total work and present the conference with 20 presentations held by authors from Croatia and neighbouring countries like Slovenia and Serbia. Nine presentations with specific themes about medical history in Rijeka, and 11 presentations wider spectre.

Zvonimir Maretic (1921-1989): The History of Discovery of the First European Antilatrodectic Serum and its Preparator in the Occasion Of the 30th Anniversary of His Death

Zvonimir Maretic was the pioneer of the study of venomous animals and plants, toxicology, and tourism medicine. His achievements have been recognized, but insufficiently researched. His work covers a broad range of biomedical sciences: from public health, ecology, and environmental protection, to epidemiology and infectology. Maretic was one of the founding members of the International Society on Toxinology and the Toxicon journal's first Editorial Board. He was the first in Europe to prepare the antilatrodectic serum and to successfully apply the weever and scorpionfish antiserum on humans. This brief note tries to commemorate the achievements of Maretic, up to now poorly recognized and insufficiently researched.