Serving Residents of Allen County
Though its name and services evolved over more than 150 years, the Allen County Department of Health has a storied history serving residents of Fort Wayne and its surrounding communities.
State of Indiana passes the enabling legislation allowing for the creation of the Fort Wayne Board of Public Health.
A mandatory 18-day quarantine is imposed for any pupil exposed to smallpox.
The first meat and milk licenses are issued. Milk merchants must declare the number of wagons used to deliver milk in Fort Wayne to obtain permits.
Rules for quarantining households are adopted.
Physicians are ordered to report all cases of influenza coming to clinics whether mild or severe to the Health Department. Schools are required to send every pupil or teacher with a severe cold, cough or sneezing to their doctor.
A health campaign to rid the city of rats was started, since the pests had "accumulated during past years when garbage collection was difficult due to war and manpower shortage."
A food & beverage ordinance was written and passed for greater consumer safety. A Water Cross Connection campaign was also developed due to increasing water pollution issues.
The city declares an emergency and is placed under a quarantine due to an ongoing rabies epidemic.
The polio epidemic is the worst in Fort Wayne history, with 45 cases and 5 deaths at that point.
A new Indiana law requires schools to report the disease immunization records for each student. The city and county health departments also begin to discuss a merger.
The Board of Heath establishes a TB clinic at the Irene Byron Hospital.
The Health Department moves to the City-County Building (now Rousseau Center) in downtown Fort Wayne. A rodent control division is established and a commercial swimming pool and beach ordinance is adopted.
The public begins to demand spraying for mosquitoes with the emergence of St. Louis Encephalitis.