All-Russian Congress of Pediatricians - USSR.

At the congress there were approximately 1200 delegates, who had come from various oblasts and autonomous republics of the Russian Federation and other union republics, eminent pediatricians, therapeutists, representatives of the Ministry of Public Health of the RSFSR and the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR. The Minister of Public Health of the RSFSR, N. A. Vinogradov opened the congress. The Deputy Minister of Public Health of the RSFSR N. N. Grigoryeva reported on the state of aid to children for l959. She noted together with the progress achieved in Soviet pediatrics the lag of some fields, in particular in combating childrens infections, the morbidity of which is still high. The Deputy Minister of Education Comrade Katsin dwelled on the importance of the proper academic load, the expedient distribution of time, on the question of physical education of school children as the most urgent problem in the field of education. The remaining reports and speeches in the discussions were devoted to the problems of rheumatism, tuberculosis, the physiology and the pathology of newborns, and also the physical development and medical service of school children. Member of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR Prof. A. F. Tur gave a report on the physical education of children as a basis of prophylaxis for rheumatism and tuberculosis. He emphasized the importance of individual diathesis of the child 15 organism to rheumatism and tuberculosis, and also the role of the proper physical education of children from the first days of life as a necessary condition of their full development and formation of the maximum resistance of the organism to any negative effects of the external environment.