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U.S. Senate Study Finds Life Expectancy in Israel Averaging 70 Years

April 9, 1959
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Life expectancy of the average Israeli is now over 70 years, while the typical Egyptian will live but 39 years, according to a study of world health conditions published today by a Senate subcommittee.

In a comprehensive evaluation of the status of world health, the subcommittee on International Organizations of the Committee on Government Operations reported that Israel now has more physicians per capita than the United States or any other nation. The heavy concentration of refugee physicians was cited. There is a range of one physician to every 610 inhabitants in Austria and the USSR. But even more physicians are available in Israel at present.

The mortality rate from tuberculosis in Israel was determined to be less than that of the United States. The report told of how Israelis were working to add knowledge to the understanding of heart disease. It cited the work in Israel of Dr. Franz Sondheimer who is working in Rehovoth, Israel, on a grant from the U.S. National Heart Institute, on the synthetic preparation of cardiac-active substances from natural products.

Dr. Henry Ungar, professor of pathology at the Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, was mentioned as a member of “a distinguished group under the auspices of the World Health Organization developing a classification with uniform terminology for use in the world-wide study of arteriosclerosis. ” Among significant contributors to world dental research, the report listed an Israeli, I. Gdalia, of Hebrew University, who is working on fluoride.

Israelis have been awarded U.S. National Institute of Health research grants to advance research in cancer chemotherapy. Work in this field by E. D. Bergmann of Hebrew University and D. Lavie of the Weizmann Institute was mentioned. Other Israelis were listed as doing work for the United States National Health Research in the areas of parasitology and tropical medicine, biochemistry, biophysics, pharmacology and experimental therapeutics.

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