Between 1956 and the mid-1960s, urban south India served as a global `laboratory' for the study of tuberculosis. This article examines the origins and development of two internationally sponsored projects, in Madras (now Chennai) and Bangalore, established to investigate the medical and social implications of introducing anti-tuberculosis drugs in poor urban communities. The article thus provides a case study of the role of biomedical technology in an early international health campaign, examining how changing knowledge and technology re-cast the perceived relationship between disease and poverty. I also aim to situate the history of tuberculosis control within the broader context of the ideas and politics of `development' in the international arena during the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, the article looks at the interaction between a medical discourse involving the individualization of tuberculosis as a health problem, and an economic discourse of `cost-effectiveness' in international public health policy.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
McMillen, Christian W.;
Brimnes, Niels;
(2010)
Medical Modernization and Medical Nationalism: Resistance to Mass Tuberculosis Vaccination in Postcolonial India, 1948--1955
Article
Vivek Neelakantan;
(2018)
Tuberculosis Control in Postcolonial South India and Southeast Asia: Fractured Sovereignties in International Health, 1948-1960
Article
Ortega Martos, Antonio Miguel;
(2010)
¿Colonialismo biomédico o autonomía de lo local? Sanadores tradicionales contra la tuberculosis
Article
Bastos, Cristiana;
(2009)
Borrowing, Adapting, and Learning the Practices of Smallpox: Notes from Colonial Goa
Thesis
Dwyer, Erica Christine;
(2014)
The Making of a Global Health Crisis: Extensively Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis and Global Science in Rural South Africa
Book
Bharat Jayram Venkat;
(2021)
At the Limits of Cure
Thesis
Luna, Marcos;
(2007)
The Biomedicalization of Public Health and the Marginalization of theEnvironment: A Policy History from the Environment to the Hospital and BackAgain
Article
Kaisa Harju;
(2020)
Between Donor Interest, Global Models and Local Conditions: Treatment and Decision-Making in the Somalia-Finland Tuberculosis Control Project, 1981–3
Article
Geltzer, Anna;
(2012)
In a Distorted Mirror: The Cold War and U.S.-Soviet Biomedical Cooperation and (Mis)understanding, 1956--1977
Thesis
Polu, Sandhya Lakshmi;
(2009)
The Perception of Risk: Policy-Making on Infectious Disease in India (1892--1940)
Article
Cueto, Marcos;
(2015)
The “Culture of Survival” and International Public Health in Latin America: The Cold War and the Eradication of Diseases in the Mid-Twentieth Century
Thesis
Scales, David Alaistair;
(2009)
The World Health Organization and the Dynamics of International Disease Control: Exit, Voice, and (Trojan) Loyalty
Book
Tim Carter;
(2014)
Merchant Seamen's Health, 1860-1960: Medicine, Technology, Shipowners and the State in Britain
Article
Olson, Sherry;
Henry, Kevin;
Jomphe, Michèle;
Schwartzman, Kevin;
Brassard, Paul;
(2010)
Tracking Tuberculosis in the Past: The Use of Genealogical Evidence
Article
Colclough, Gillian;
(2010)
“Filthy Vessels”: Milk Safety and Attempts to Restrict the Spread of Bovine Tuberculosis in Queensland
Book
Jones, Greta;
Malcolm, Elizabeth;
(1999)
Medicine, disease, and the State in Ireland, 1650-1940
Article
Alessandra Maria Balestra;
(2018)
The industry of butter made with pasteurised cream as a defence against Tuberculosis transmission
Article
Stylianou, Marianna;
(2009)
“A Scandal Which Must be Corrected”: Reconsidering the Success of the Australian Tuberculosis Campaign
Article
Álvarez, Adriana;
(2010)
La experiencia de ser un 'niño débil y enfermo' lejos de su hogar: el caso del Asilo Marítimo, Mar del Plata (1893--1920)
Article
Bakker, Nelleke;
(2010)
Fresh Air and Good Food: Children and the Anti-Tuberculosis Campaign in the Netherlands, c. 1900--1940
Be the first to comment!