Prevention of endemic goiter and the ten-year health plan for Americas.

The history of endemic goiter can be traced back to several centuries before Christ, when Chinese, Hindu, and Egyptian medical literature made occasional reference to the disease. Later, in the first centuries of the Christian era, during the Middle Ages, and during the Renaissance, a number of writers and scientists displayed interest in the problem (I). Its occurrence was generally attributed to the quality of the waters or living conditions in the mountains, and the cures recommended I included seaweed and marine sponges and animal thyroid preparations. Interesting observations were made in these periods about goitrous areas in both the Old and the New World and about the occurrence of cretinism in populations with a high prevalence of endemic goiter. Early in the last century iodine was used for the first time to treat goiter, and later iodized salt and iodides were used to prevent the disease (2). The tremendous advances of modern medicine have brought about a correspondingly vast increase in our knowledge of the etiology, pathogenesis, and epidemiology of endemic goiter, its clinical and pathologic pictures, and