Medical and health problems facing Jews in Iran, Italy, Austria, Germany, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia and other countries were reviewed here at the closing session of the international medical conference of the Joint Distribution Committee.
The conference, which was called in order to familiarize J.D.C. medical directors overseas with the latest developments in the fields of tuberculosis, care of the aged, trachoma control, sanitation and rehabilitation programs for the handicapped, earlier heard reports on JDC work in these fields in Israel. Experts in each of these fields addressed the conference.
Dr. Meyer Herman, reporting on the situation in Iran, said that inadequate voluntary efforts on the part of the Jewish communities there have forced the JDC to assume major responsibility in assisting the communities in carrying out a health program for the needy Jews.
Dr. Marco Tennenbaum, reporting on Italy, said that a survey conducted among 842 persons in the Rome ghetto to establish their health and economic standards revealed that only 286 had not sought medical assistance during the past eighteen months. Theodore Feder, JDC director for Austria, reported that two-thirds of the 4, 894 Jews in Vienna are over the age of 45. Many of the elderly persons placed in JDC-supported homes are chronically ill.
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