In 1965 Jamaica was declared free of malaria by the World Health Organisation (WHO), thus ending centuries of death and suffering from the disease. This declaration followed the successful completion of the WHO's Malaria Eradication Programme (MEP) on the island, initiated in 1958. This account first explores the antecedent control measures adopted by the government up to the MEP. These, as advocated by the previous malaria `experts' who had reported on the disease on the island concentrated on controlling the vector and the administration of quinine for individual protection. Although Jamaica suffered no catastrophic epidemics of island-wide scope, malaria was a constant cause of mortality and morbidity. Major change came in the wake of the Second World War within the changing political context of national independence and international development. In 1957 the Jamaican government joined the global WHO programme to eradicate malaria. The Jamaican campaign exposes many of the problems noted in other studies of such top--down initiatives in their lack of attention to the particular circumstances of each case. Despite being described as `a textbook pattern' of malaria eradication, the MEP in Jamaica suffered from a lack of sufficient preparation and field knowledge. This is most obviously illustrated by the fact that all literature on the programme sent to Jamaica in the first two years was in Spanish. That the MEP exploited the technological opportunity provided by dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) with advantage in Jamaica is not disputed but as this analysis illustrates this success was by no means guaranteed.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Chapter
Dilger, Hansjörg;
(2012)
The (Ir)Relevance of Local Knowledge: Circuits of Medicine and Biopower in the Neoliberal Era
(/isis/citation/CBB001422695/)
Thesis
Reinhardt, Robert Holbrook;
(2012)
Remaking Bodily Environments: The Global Eradication of Smallpox
(/isis/citation/CBB001561026/)
Article
Atsuko Naono;
(2022)
“Going ‘the Last Mile’ to Eliminate Malaria” in Myanmar?
(/isis/citation/CBB996132296/)
Article
Jones, M.;
(2000)
The Ceylon malaria epidemic of 1934--35: A case study in colonial medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB000111976/)
Book
Willrich, Michael;
(2011)
Pox: An American History
(/isis/citation/CBB001212485/)
Article
Hardy, Anne;
(2014)
Scientific Strategy and Ad Hoc Response: The Problem of Typhoid in America and England, C. 1910--50
(/isis/citation/CBB001214576/)
Article
Chiffoleau, Sylvia;
(2013)
Entre bienfaisance, contrôle des populations et agenda international: la politique sanitaire du mandat français en Syrie et au Liban
(/isis/citation/CBB001213546/)
Book
Humphries, Mark Osborne;
(2013)
The Last Plague: Spanish Influenza and the Politics of Public Health in Canada
(/isis/citation/CBB001420164/)
Essay Review
Murison, Justine S.;
(2013)
Anachronism, Literary Historicism, and Miraculous Plagues
(/isis/citation/CBB001567010/)
Article
Cécile Vanderpelen-Diagre;
Valérie Leclercq;
(2022)
Tendre le bras à la nation
(/isis/citation/CBB641054038/)
Book
Goulet Denis;
(2020)
Brève histoire des épidémies au Québec: Du choléra à la COVID-19
(/isis/citation/CBB318570787/)
Essay Review
Cohen, Matt;
(2013)
“The Indians Told Them That Sickness Would Follow”: A Response to Miraculous Plagues
(/isis/citation/CBB001567012/)
Essay Review
Tannenbaum, Rebecca J.;
(2013)
Putting Health and Medicine Back into History: Commentary on Cristobal Silva, Miraculous Plagues
(/isis/citation/CBB001567011/)
Article
Aderinto, Saheed;
(2012)
Dangerous Aphrodisiac, Restless Sexuality: Venereal Disease, Biomedicine, and Protectionism in Colonial Lagos, Nigeria
(/isis/citation/CBB001200590/)
Article
Brewer, Paul R.;
Ley, Barbara L.;
(2014)
Contested Evidence: Exposure to Competing Scientific Claims and Public Support for Banning Bisphenol A
(/isis/citation/CBB001420072/)
Article
Fantini, Bernardino;
(2012)
Polio in Italy
(/isis/citation/CBB001211097/)
Article
Li, Runhong;
(2011)
The “523 Project” and the Rediscovery of Sweet Wormwood's Antimalarial Effect
(/isis/citation/CBB001221350/)
Article
Markus, Miles B.;
(2011)
Malaria: Origin of the Term “Hypnozoite”
(/isis/citation/CBB001220961/)
Book
Cueto, Marcos;
(2007)
Cold War, Deadly Fevers: Malaria Eradication in Mexico, 1955--1975
(/isis/citation/CBB000774197/)
Chapter
Hulverscheidt, Marion A.;
(2010)
Internationale Forschungslenkung: Malariaforschung im Rahmen des Malaria Eradication Programme der World Health Organization 1955--1972
(/isis/citation/CBB001031927/)
Be the first to comment!