Bilharzia
A History of Imperial Tropical Medicine

Professor Farley describes how governments and organizations faced one particular tropical disease, bilharzia or schistosomiasis.

John Farley (Author)

9780521400862, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 July 1991

372 pages
23.8 x 16.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.676 kg

"...compelling..." The Lancet

The advent of tropical medicine was a direct consequence of European and American imperialism, when military personnel, colonial administrators, businessmen, and settlers encountered a new set of diseases endemic to the tropics. Professor Farley describes how governments and organizations in Britain, the British colonies, the United States, Central and South America, South Africa, China, and the World Health Organization faced one particular tropical disease, bilharzia or schistosomiasis. Bilharzia is caused by a species of blood vessel-inhabiting parasitic worms and today afflicts over 200 million people in seventy-four countries. John Farley demonstrates that British and American imperial policies and attitudes largely determined the nature of tropical medicine. Western medical practitioners defined the type of medical system that was imposed on the indigenous populations; they dictated which diseases were important and worthy of study, which diseases were to be controlled, and which control methods were to be used.

List of tables and figures
Acknowledgments
1. Introduction
Part I. The Imperial Approach (1898–World War II): 2. 1898: a declaration of war
3. 1898: another war, another continent
4. Bilharzia (1850–1918): the Looss controversies
5. The International Health Board
6. Bilharzia: optimism in Egypt (1918–39)
7. Into the 1930s: economics of disease
8. The 1930s: empires in transition
9. Bilharzia: World War II
Part II. A Brief Interlude: Social Medicine: 10. New ideas
11. Bilharzia: pessimism in Egypt (1940–55)
12. Bilharzia: victory in China?
Part III. The Professional Approach (1950–1970s): 13. The new British Empire: finding the experts
14. South Africa (1950–60): social medicine versus scientific research
15. Bilharzia: second to only one
16. Bilharzia (1950–1970s): a strategic change
17. Conclusion: the imperial triad
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Tropical medicine [MMRT]