Events in society

Cholera 
During the 19th century, the Netherlands is plagued by four cholera epidemics: from 1832-1833, 1848-1849, 1853-1855 and 1866-1867. The disease leaves a lasting impression and emphasizes the need for state supervision in medical matters.

Creation of municipal sanitation services

Bacteriological breakthrough
Robert Koch discovers the causative agents of tuberculosis. Shortly after, the causes of cholera, diphtheria, typhoid fever, tetanus, the plague and syphilis are also discovered. Louis Pasteur develops the theory of germs, comes up with a method of sterilization, and creates a rabies vaccine.

Establishment of the Food Inspection Department

Successful preventive medicine
Awareness of the connection between a person’s living environment and the incidence of diseases grows. Preventive medicine – focusing on healthy nutrition, clean water and sanitary living conditions – greatly contributes to the decreased mortality rate during the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. The contributions of medical-therapeutic progress are still limited.

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Central Laboratory
After several decades, the Dutch government answers the public health inspectors’ plea for their own laboratory. The Central Laboratory for the Public Health Inspectorate is established in the Sterrenbosch complex on Catharijnesingel in Utrecht. The working conditions in the laboratory are difficult – there aren’t nearly enough people to handle the rapidly mounting workload in a cramped workspace. In addition to researching diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, syphilis, and later the Spanish flu, the laboratory also conducts research on nutrition, medicines, and water and air pollution.

Foundation of the National Institute for Drinking Water Supply (RID)

First World War and Spanish flu
The Spanish flu breaks out during the last year of the First World War. Within a short time span, the disease claims more (military) victims than the previous years of combat. The flu causes roughly 40 million deaths worldwide, including 27,000 in the Netherlands.

Stock market crash

Second World War

Start of the Cold War

Establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO)

Rise of mass production
In order to increase world food production, the use of agricultural chemicals and food technology expands. Industrial emissions resulting from mass production also lead to new environmental and health hazards.

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Marshall Plan
RIV receives 3.5 million guilders as part of the Marshall Plan. It undergoes massive growth so that the Netherlands will no longer need to rely on imported vaccines and, in the event of war with the Eastern Bloc, can produce enough serums and vaccines for NATO military forces.

Creation of the Compost Foundation, later the Institute for Waste Research (1981)

Relocation to Bilthoven
RIV moves to a new building in Bilthoven, prompting a turning point in vaccine production. Major successes in the development and production of vaccines for diseases such as polio and smallpox are achieved during the 1950s and 1960s.

RIV gets a laboratory to research soil, water and air

Launch of the Central Vaccine Laboratory

Polio epidemic
Many countries are afflicted by large-scale polio epidemics. Some 2,200 cases of polio are reported in the Netherlands.

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National Vaccine Programme
The national vaccine programme gradually takes shape. A massive, nationwide polio vaccination campaign is considered the beginning of the National Immunization Programme (RVP). At this point, the programme provides diphtheria, tetanus, polio and whooping cough vaccines. In the following years, it gradually expands to include vaccines for mumps, measles, rubella, Haemophilus influenzae type b, meningococcus C, pneumococcus, hepatitis B and cervical cancer (HPV).

Euratom Treaty

Nuclear testing
Atmospheric nuclear testing causes radioactive fallout and great public unrest.

Salmonella epidemic
The large-scale post-war import of (contaminated) cattle feed allows salmonella to spread rapidly. At the same time, meat consumption surges during the 1950s and 1960s, with minced meat being especially popular. Meatballs are often not cooked long enough to destroy the salmonella bacteria.

Softenon
The widespread use of the medicine thalidomide (softenon) by pregnant women results in the births of children with serious congenital defects. Two years later, the Netherlands implements a requirement to register medicines and establishes the Medicines Evaluation Board (CBG).

Publication of Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, start of the environmental movement

Establishment of Environmental Inspectorate
There is growing awareness that industrial mass production, intensive animal husbandry and liberal use of pesticides come with more than just economic growth and progress.

Changing lifestyles
Increasing prosperity, mass consumption and the secularization of society in the 1960s and 1970s result in changing lifestyles.

Pollution in the Rhine River
In addition to the air pollution around the Rhine delta in the Netherlands, massive numbers of fish dying from endosulfan pollution in the Rhine prompt the formation of national and regional monitoring networks. This also contributes to European environmental legislation starting to take shape.

Club of Rome
The Club of Rome releases its report ‘The Limits to Growth’.

Start of research on preventing cervical cancer

Extensive soil contamination in Lekkerkerk (the Netherlands)

WHO declares that smallpox has been eradicated globally

Cardiovascular diseases
Mortality caused by infectious diseases in the Netherlands decreases to roughly 4 in 100,000 people, while mortality caused by cardiovascular diseases is approximately 365 in 100,000 people. Around 220 in 100,000 people die of cancer.

Rise of AIDS

Acid rain
The Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) launches the first large-scale environmental campaign in the Netherlands entitled ‘Stop acid rain’.

Chernobyl
The Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident makes an enormous impact on society. The government decides to create an organization to prevent nuclear accidents.

Massive numbers of seal deaths
RIVM plays a key role in identifying the virus. A field study on the effects of pollution on seals’ immune systems contributes to the recognition and development of RIVM’s immunotoxicological research.

Concern for Tomorrow
RIVM takes the initiative with the national ‘Global air pollution and climate change’ research programme. Its ‘Concern for Tomorrow’ report, the first national environmental survey, discusses environmental problems not just at a global level, but also at the national and local levels. In doing so, the institute takes its first concrete step in its new role in strategic policy support.

Fall of the Berlin Wall

Launch of National Nuclear Emergency Response System

Beginning of preventive breast cancer research

Bijlmer plane crash

Polio epidemic in Dutch ‘bible belt’

Creation of the European Union (Treaty of Maastricht)
The jurisdiction of the European (Economic) Community expands to include a large number of policy domains. More and more legislation and standards are developed at the European level instead of at the individual member state level.

Instelling European Environment Agency

Rise of the Internet

Establishment of the European Medicines Agency

Connection between BSE and Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant

Hong Kong bird flu


Swine flu

Kyoto Protocol
Protocol to the climate treaty to reduce greenhouse gases.

Dioxin chicken affair

Outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease at the Flora flower exhibition in Bovenkarspel (the Netherlands)

Outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease

World Trade Center attack
Concerns about white powder letters and growing fears about a possible terrorist attack in the Netherlands mount in the years following 9/11. A smallpox virus attack is considered to be a worst case scenario. The Netherlands creates a supply of vaccines which can be used to vaccinate the entire population in case of an emergency.

European comparisons
For the first time, a comparison between EU countries takes centre stage in the third Public Health Status and Forecast. The Netherlands trails its neighbours in female life expectancy and perinatal infant mortality. Subsequent health policies seek to address these issues.

Centre for External Safety and CGOR
The National Centre for External Safety (CEV) is established at RIVM, followed a year later by the Centre for Health Impact Assessment of Disasters (CGOR), which aims to make knowledge of health research following disasters available and accessible.

The Food Inspection Department (KvW) now part of the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA)

Establishment of the European Food Safety Authority

Division of vaccine activities
A large portion of RIVM’s vaccine responsibilities are transferred to the Netherlands Vaccine Institute (NVI).

Avian flu found among poultry in the Netherlands

SARS crisis
On 12 March, WHO sounds the global alarm in response to multiple cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). The countries which are most affected are China, Canada, Singapore and Vietnam.

Our food, our health
Our food is safer than at any other time in history, but the Dutch are not only eating too much food, but unhealthy foods as well. According to RIVM’s ‘Our Food, Our Health’ report, this is having quite a detrimental effect on the nation’s health and causing a two-year average decrease in lifespan. The report provides the Netherlands with the first comprehensive overview of available information regarding food consumption, food safety, and subsequent long-term health effects.

Obesity becomes the most prevalent disease of civilization

Establishment of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control

Expanded responsibilities and outreach
The re-evaluation of the structure of the healthcare sector and upcoming health insurance changes result in an expansion of responsibilities at RIVM. In addition to conducting research and advising the government, RIVM is now also responsible for providing direction and national coordination for prevention and intervention programmes. RIVM also takes on a more prominent role in educating the public. One example is the launch of the kiesBeter.nl website to provide support for the system change in healthcare insurance. In 2006, RIVM also releases its first Healthcare Performance Report, which assesses the quality, accessibility and cost of healthcare in the Netherlands. The report is issued every other year. 

Centre for Infectious Disease Control
A series of epidemics, outbreaks and incidents which began in the 1980s with AIDS, followed by polio (1992/93), Legionnaire’s disease (1999), BSE, avian flu and finally SARS in 2003, leads to the formation of the Centre for Infectious Disease Control at RIVM.

Closer look at particulate matter
In collaboration with the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, RIVM releases an overview report presenting all the facts and uncertainties regarding particulate matter.

Public debate over Air Quality Decree
Particulate matter concentrations in the Netherlands often exceed maximum limits, affecting spatial developments.

2006

Research into Q fever
RIVM begins investigating the causes of the Q fever outbreak, the scale of which is unique in the world. Goats are suspected to be the cause. A series of measures (vaccinations, hygiene, etc.) are used to try and stop the epidemic.

System change in health care insurance

Publication of government vision document on nanotechnology

Poisoning of former spy Litvinenko
Russian former spy Alexander Litvinenko dies in a London hospital after radioactive polonium-210 poisoning. Before dying, he claims that the Russian secret service is responsible. 

Climate change
The film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is released, and climate change tops agendas throughout the world. Changes in the climate can indirectly affect illnesses associated with air quality, allergies, water and food-related diseases, and vector-based diseases. Rising temperatures increase the habitat for insects, bacteria, fungi and algae, all of which can contribute to the spread of diseases.

RVP’s 50-year anniversary

REACH helpdesk launched
The REACH helpdesk is launched to support the Dutch government, companies and their sector organizations with the implementation of REACH, the European regulation on chemical substances. RIVM and SenterNovem jointly run the helpdesk.

Counterfeit medicines
The Internet is increasingly used for the sale of counterfeit medicines and health products. RIVM investigates confiscated products, helping to protect consumers.

Centre for Healthy Living
With the new Centre for Healthy Living, RIVM starts promoting the use of effective lifestyle interventions.

Rise in chronic illnesses
In conjunction with an aging population, unhealthy lifestyles significantly contribute to the disease burden in the Netherlands. The number of people with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, osteoporosis and COPD is increasing.

Q fever outbreak

2008

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Inoculation offices integrated into RIVM
The inoculation offices responsible for the coordination and administration of the National Immunization Programme (RVP) are integrated into RIVM. In 2007, RVP celebrates its 50-year anniversary. Boasting a reach of 95% of the population, the programme protects children against eleven serious infectious diseases.

KIR-nano established
The new Knowledge and Information Centre for Nanotechnology Risks (KIR-nano) provides an overview of potential risks in four key areas in which this technology could be applied: medicines and medical technology, nutrition, consumer products, and the environment.

Smoking ban
In collaboration with the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (VWA), RIVM measures the air quality in hotels, restaurants and bars before and after implementation of the smoking ban. The amount of particulate matter in the air is nine times lower after the ban took effect.

Marburg virus
After a Dutch tourist is infected, RIVM coordinates all the necessary measures which need to be taken in order to prevent the Marburg virus from spreading further.

Marburg virus
Worldwide trade and tourism have undergone dramatic growth during the past few decades, bringing along a host of new challenges. A Dutch woman dies at the Leiden Academic Medical Centre on 11 July 2008 after being infected with the Marburg virus while on vacation in Uganda. The virus causes haemorrhagic fever, a very serious and rare infectious disease.

Future trends
Increasing coordination and steering tasks, along with a larger role public outreach, signal a marked shift for RIVM from a research institute to a knowledge centre. In addition, globalization requires that its research and other activities be carried out on a much larger scale. As a result, RIVM’s activities will take place in an increasingly international context and be implemented in collaboration with a variety of partners.

Future trends
Cancer replaces cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death. Non-terminal chronic illnesses become increasingly significant as well. Vigilance regarding new infectious diseases and emerging environmental problems remains essential. At the same time, collaboration between science and industry leads to successful innovation in the development of new methods to prevent, diagnose and treat many diseases.