Poverty &amp; Disease <br /> <br /> Poverty among the population is still with us today as it always has been through the years. Even today, in more underdeveloped countries, people live in filth and squalor, and in fact we don&acirc;€™t have to look too far afield to find it on our own back door. When I was growing up in St. Johns in the 1940s and 50s it was more evident than it is today. Slum clearance programs have looked after that. Still, when I recently came across this photo of two young boys of St. John&acirc;€™s in the late 19th century, barefoot and in rags, I was reminded of how it used to be. Back then poverty bred disease, and diseases such cholera and typhus were common and preyed on the young, the weak and the elderly. In my day it was Tuberculosis and Polio. Thank heaven those diseases were eradiated through the use of vaccine therapy.<br /> <br /> <br /> Photo Credit; Paul O&acirc;€™Neill, The Oldest City. The Story of St. Johns, Newfoundland, 2003.<br /> <br /> <br /> John Cornick<br /> Halifax, Nova Scotia<br /> <br />   Submitted By: John Cornick