The State Institution «Marzieiev Institute for Public Health (IPH) of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine» (formerly the Scientific-Research Institute (SRI) for General and Municipal Hygiene, Ministry of Public Health of Ukraine) was established in 1931. The creation and development of the Institute were the personal merit of Oleksandr Marzieiev, who headed it for 25 years. In 1967, the Institute was named after this prominent scientist-hygienist.

Oleksandr Marzieiev was a founder of the country’s sanitary-epidemiological service. He identified progressive forms and ways of cooperation between sanitary-epidemiological stations’ practitioners and scientists of the Institute.

Except for A. Marzieiev (1931-1956), the Institute was headed by D. Kaliuzhnyi (1956-1971), a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences (AMS) of Ukraine, M. Shandala (1971-1990), Academician of the AMS of USSR. Since 1990, the Institute has been headed by A. Serdiuk, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, Academician of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, professor.

In different years the known scientists-hygienists who worked at this scientific institution are V. Zhabotynskyi, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professors R. Habovych, N. Kvitnytska, M. Kryzhanivska, V. Palhov, I. Mukhin, S. Naishtein, Y. Kostovetskyi, N. Yanysheva, L. Hryhorieva, V. Prysiazhniuk. Now, their work is continuing with dignity by professors V. Akimenko, O. Voloshchenko, Yu. Dumanskyi, I. Chernychenko, and others.

Throughout its existence, the Institute’s activity was closely linked to the needs and requirements of the population of Ukraine and the construction of the national economy. Its first scientific task was the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Donetsk region of the country; it testified to great confidence in the scientists and experts who were trusted to elaborate the new hygienic aspects of the construction of cities and villages in Ukraine.

After World War II, the Institute experts examined the sanitary state of the liberated cities and the consequences of destruction. They participated in developing measures for rebuilding the national economy, purification of the settlements, and improving residential, industrial, and public buildings. They studied air pollution, drinking, and wastewater contamination levels.

In subsequent years, the research work of our specialists was aimed at establishing general patterns of physical and chemical environmental factors, their impact on the health and living conditions of the population, and improvement of methodology for hygienic standardization and development of science-based hygienic recommendations for ecological sanitation and the prevention of adverse effects of scientific-and-technological progress.

Besides the problems of municipal hygiene, considerable attention was given to the health problems of children and adolescents, sanitary microbiology, and radiation hygiene.

In 1959, the Public Health Organization Department was created at the Institute, where research on social hygiene, healthcare organization, and the history of medicine was performed. Later (in 1989), it became the basis for creating the Kiev Scientific-Research Institute for Social Hygiene and Public Health Administration, Ministry of Public Health of Ukraine.

Since 1970, in the former USSR, the Institute was a leader in developing two of the most significant problems – “Environmental Hygiene” and “Hygiene of Physical Factors.” The Board of the Administration of the Scientific Society of Hygienists of Ukraine was created based on the Institute. It brings together scientists and sanitarians. The Ministry of Public Health of Ukraine has specialized committees for developing the standard documents in municipal hygiene and children’s and adolescents’ hygiene.

Determination of the principles, criteria, and methods for the integrated assessment of the damage to the population’s health caused by environmental pollution was an essential achievement of those years.

The scientists of the Institute were the first in the world to develop a scientific basis for hygienic regulation of chemical carcinogens. Large-scale complex studies on the hygiene of regional planning and town planning were carried out, and the sanitary state of large and small rivers of Ukraine was estimated. A strategy for sanitary purification of the settlements was created based on the results of their research.
Over 17 years (1972-1990), the professionals of the Institute were engaged in one of three scientific programs of the Soviet-American cooperation in the field of medicine, evidenced by their high scientific level.

In 1981, the Institute was awarded the Order of the Red Labour Banner for outstanding achievements in environmental protection and protection of the health of the population of Ukraine, as well on the 50th anniversary of its foundation.

From the first days of the accident at the Chornobyl NPP, the Institute’s staff participated in eliminating its consequences. In the research processes, the characteristics of radiation pollution of the environment and its impact on the population’s health were presented, and effective equivalent doses of external and internal exposure of the inhabitants of the zone of strict control were calculated. Many practical recommendations for the population’s safety and people working in the Chornobyl zone have been prepared. For the first time in Ukraine, a concept of creating an integrated control system for the safe operation of nuclear power plants and countering the emergence of radiation accidents based on medical and scientific principles was established.

Specialists of the Institute were directly involved in eliminating the consequences of extraordinary situations, such as cholera outbreaks in Odesa and the Mykolaiv and region floods in the Zakarpattia region. They evaluated and predicted a course of sanitary situations, which formed as a result of children’s morbidity in the city of Chernivtsi, hepatitis A morbidity among the residents of the town of Sukhodolsk, the Lugansk region, infectious morbidity and deterioration of water quality in the city of Kremenchuk, the Poltava region, etc.

In 1989, the Republic Scientific Hygienic Center was organized based on the Kyiv Research Institute for General and Municipal Hygiene (since 1992 – Ukrainian Scientific Center of Hygiene). Except for the Research Institute of General and Municipal Hygiene, it contained the Research Institute for Food Hygiene and the Ukrainian Scientific Center of Medical Genetics. Later, the two last left the Center.

By the Governmental Decree of October 13, 2000, the Center was renamed the O.M. Marzieiev Institute for Hygiene and Medical Ecology and was subordinated to the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine.

The experience of the Institute’s scientists and summarized data of the international legislative documents were taken into account in the development of the effective legislation of Independent Ukraine: Laws “About Providing Sanitary and Epidemiological Population Welfare,” “About Atmosphere Air Protection,” “About Planning and Building of the Territory,” “Water Code.” The IHME experts help in legislative activity, not only the Supreme Soviet. They are the co-authors of the documents of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministries, and the Departments on many problems in medicine, hygiene, and environmental protection.

Researching the regulation of harmful factors in environmental objects (air, water, soil) became a significant scientific achievement of the IHME hygienists. Only in the last 25 years have about 200 sanitary rules and regulations, state standards, 250 hygienic standards, and about 500 scientific-methodological materials been developed.
The Institute’s scientists are the initiators, active developers, and implementers of the National Programs “Children of Ukraine,” “National Program of Environmental Rehabilitation of the Dnipro River Basin and Improvement of the Quality of Drinking Water,” “National Action Plan for Environmental Hygiene as Part of the European Process,” “Target-Oriented Complex Program of Genetic Monitoring in Ukraine “and others. According to the Resolution of the Cabinet of Minister of Ukraine of 10.01.2002 № 14, the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology is defined as a leading institution for realizing the Interdepartmental complex program “Health of Nation” for 2002-2011. According to the order of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine of 15.04.2004 № 5, a scientific, scientific-coordinative, and organization-methodical guidance for the realization of the assignments of the National Program “Drinking Water of Ukraine” for 2006-2020 was entrusted to the Institute for Hygiene and Medical Ecology.
Since the Declaration of Independence, Ukraine’s public health system has been almost preserved in an unchangeable state. The isolated reforming measures only intensified a crisis in the medical sphere. Taking this into account, a complex reform in the sphere of public health is urgent. It provides measures used by the state for the prevention of diseases and the preservation of the health of its citizens.
Launched reforms in public health, namely the development of the public health system in Ukraine and changes in the scientific activity of the Institute. To ensure scientific support for the development of public health services and the consolidation of the priority of preventive direction in the sphere of public health, the Presidium of the National Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine renamed the State Institution “O.M. Marzieiev Institute for Hygiene and Medical Ecology, NAMSU” into the State Institution “O.M. Marzieiev Institute for Public Health, NAMSU” in its Resolution of April 29, 2015. The Institute’s name and activity directions were changed, and structural transformations were performed.
Nowadays, the O.M. Marzieiev Institute for Public Health has 26 academic departments (5 departments and 21 laboratories), a clinic for laboratory animals, and a scientific library with a fund of about 50,000 national and foreign printed matter originals.

There are 316 specialists at the Institute, including 190 scientists (including 31 Doctors and 62 Candidates of Sciences). The experts of the Institute for Hygiene and Medical Ecology are the performers of more than three-quarters of the scientific investigations on municipal hygiene issues made in Ukraine. A hundred of thousands of examinations were performed, about 100 inventions were made, and more than 200 books and directories were published. Nearly 400 scientific papers are published annually in Ukrainian and international scientific journals.

Throughout its existence, 69 Doctors and 198 Candidates of Sciences were trained at the Institute of Hygiene and Medical Ecology. Our experts guided the dissertations of the scientists from many republics of the former USSR. In 1993, a Specialized Council was established to defend doctoral and candidate theses in hygiene (medical and biological sciences) and ecology (medical sciences).

The journal “Environment and Health” and the collection of scientific papers “Hygiene of the Settlements” are edited at the Institute for Hygiene and Medical Ecology.

HONORED WORKERS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF UKRAINE

Oleksandr Marzieiev – the founder of the Institute, Director of the Institute in 1931 – 1956

Denys Kaliuzhnyi – Director of the Institute in 1956 – 1971

Mykhailo Shandala – Director of the Institute in 1971 – 1990

Andrii Serdiuk – Director of the Institute since 1990

Oleh Voloshchenko – Head of the Laboratory (Deputy Director in 1977 – 2000)

Ninel Yanysheva – Head of the Laboratory in 1960 – 1992

Yurii Dumanskyi — Head of the Laboratory in 1965 – 2014

Ludmyla Hryhorieva – Head of the Laboratory in 1964 – 1993