Book ID: CBB146380609

The International Campaign Against Leprosy: 1948 - 2005 (2022)

unapi

Robertson, Jo (Author)


Hurst


Publication Date: 2022
Physical Details: 304
Language: English

This book may offer a cautionary tale in the age of Covid-19. The narratives we shape around disease in society are so often about politics, and the competing versions of leprosy eradication's story are no exception.In one telling, the extra-budgetary funding for anti-leprosy work came with unwarranted interference in the WHO program, resulting in an over-hasty, acrimonious and ultimately unsuccessful elimination campaign. In another interpretation, a great work of twentieth-century disease control was accomplished, through extraordinary philanthropy, visionary courageousness, and wily and pragmatic diplomacy. In yet another, experienced, self-sacrificing anti-leprosy experts refused to abdicate their professional responsibilities to populist campaigns more concerned with statistics than people, which were risking patients' health with under-trialed drug therapies and irresponsibly entrusting medication to patients without supervision.None of these bureaucratic, triumphalist or elitist narratives exists independently of the others. None is without credit, and none is to the complete credit of all involved. These competing stories offer uncanny resonances in the ongoing politics of public health, which have only intensified since both the emergence of M. Leprae millennia ago, and the concerted campaign against it in the last seventy years. What could the 'stories of leprosy' tell us about our pandemic response?

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Reviewed By

Review Kah Seng Loh (2023) Review of "The International Campaign Against Leprosy: 1948 - 2005". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 453-454). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB146380609/

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Authors & Contributors
Abeysinghe, Sudeepa
Gradmann, Christoph
Berridge, Virginia
Bhattacharya, Sanjoy
Brazelton, Mary Augusta
Brown, Theodore M.
Journals
Journal of Asian Studies
Bulletin of the History of Medicine
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology
História, Ciências, Saúde---Manguinhos
Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences
Publishers
World Health Organization (WHO)
Cambridge University Press
Manchester University Press
University of California Press
Viella
University of California, Davis
Concepts
Public health
Medicine and politics
Pandemics
Medicine and society
Medicine and government
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
People
Fauci, Anthony S.
Time Periods
21st century
20th century, late
20th century
16th century
19th century
20th century, early
Places
India
Europe
Sicily
Philippines
Asia
China
Institutions
World Health Organization (WHO)
World Bank
League of Nations
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Council of Europe
UNICEF
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