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6 oeuvres 104 utilisateurs 2 critiques

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Randall M. Packard is the William H. Welch Professor and director of the Institute of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. He is the author of The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria and White Plague, Black Labor: Tuberculosis and the Political Economy of Health afficher plus and Disease in South Africa. afficher moins

Œuvres de Randall M. Packard

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I chose this book to read because I wanted a tutorial to the field of global health, and I find that histories are interesting tutorials to subjects. The author, unknown to me, is a Johns Hopkins professor of medical history and is known for writing a work on the history of malaria.

The book meets my already-high expectations. Written well, it chronicles early attempts to control disease in "foreign" habitats. It talks about how the "white man" acted with self-interest in Panama with yellow fever and with malaria. It holds no punches about the shortcomings of global health efforts, and as a good history, it shares how more primitive early efforts evolved into greater attempts down the road.

The author's most-obvious contribution to this conversation is his insistence to examine the economic and social underpinnings of health. Long-term contributions will work along these lines. Too often, Westerners' contributions were/are focused on attacking one disease (like smallpox or malaria) and are blind to the needs of greater societal structures of healthcare. Of course, disease interventions are also necessary and can have quite an impact (e.g., with smallpox's eradication). But eradication efforts must be coupled with long-term contributions to culture and education.

Women's roles cannot be underestimated. In most of the non-Western world, women can live in an underclass without as much freedom or knowledge. Women who learn, to be frank, do not become prostitutes and can control their environment to prevent the spread of disease.

Overall, I would recommend this book for global-health reading. I plan to soon compare it with a history of public health - interventions into the lives of our own people.
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Signalé
scottjpearson | Jan 25, 2020 |
This was a superb and very readable historical and epidemiological overview of malaria, from the director of the Institute for the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. The author begins the book with his own experience with this disease, as he contracted malaria while working in a clinic in Uganda, and the heroic but often futile efforts of the clinic to curtail the disease in the community. The first half of the book discusses the origins of malaria in antiquity in Africa, and its subsequent spread to and remission in other continents. The second half discusses the efforts in the late 19th century to the present time to suppress or eradicate the disease, and the author makes a strong case for the importance of political and economic factors, such as agricultural development, poverty, population migration, and civil unrest, in explaining the persistence of this infection, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where it remains a major killer. Dr. Packard ends with an analysis and critique of Roll Back Malaria, the current international effort to reduce the incidence and prevalence of malaria, and makes suggestions, based on his extensive knowledge and research, that will have a greater likelihood of success in combating the disorder. This book can be appreciated by those without a medical or public health background, and should be of interest to anyone interested in malaria, public health, and global development, and is highly recommended.… (plus d'informations)
½
 
Signalé
kidzdoc | Jan 17, 2010 |

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Statistiques

Œuvres
6
Membres
104
Popularité
#184,481
Évaluation
4.0
Critiques
2
ISBN
17

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