ABSTRACT
After World War I, Transylvania suffered heavy losses and faced different kinds of social and economic challenges. In this transitional period, some health issues, such as venereal disease, tuberculosis, and alcoholism had been considered not just public health issues but social problems that needed to be solved. Prostitution was considered responsible for syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases. In the context of post-armistice crisis, it affected the physical integrity of the nation. Many institutions to address prostitution were founded in this period. The problem as such was not unique to Central and Eastern European countries. In this post-war period in many European countries, prostitution became a matter of public interest, but in Transylvanian regional history, it is remarkable that the issue of venereal diseases became embedded strictly within a nationalist activist framework and took on a special meaning in the process of the Romanian medical community’s self-legitimization (see Bokor 2013).
