In search of a 'magic bullet' for tuberculosis: South India and beyond, 1955-1965

Social History of Medicine

Volumn 17, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 113-130

  Amrith, Sunil ^a  

^a CHRIST S COLLEGE   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Development; Health policy; International health; Post colonial india; Social medicine; Tuberculosis; World health organization

Indexed keywords

EID: 4043145677     PISSN: 0951631X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/shm/17.1.113     Document Type: Review

References (86)

1. A defining work on the impact of chemotherapy on public health is A. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States since 1880 (New York, 1987). An interesting perspective on the introduction of (anti-malarial) chemotherapy in Thailand can be found in H. Power, 'The Role of Chemotherapy in Early Malaria Control and Eradication Programmes in Thailand', Parassitologia, 40 (1998), 47-53.
2. A defining work on the impact of chemotherapy on public health is A. Brandt, No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States since 1880 (New York, 1987). An interesting perspective on the introduction of (anti-malarial) chemotherapy in Thailand can be found in H. Power, 'The Role of Chemotherapy in Early Malaria Control and Eradication Programmes in Thailand', Parassitologia, 40 (1998), 47-53.
3. On the increasing role of social science and social surveys in the study of population, see D. Hodgson, 'Demography as Social Science and Policy Science', Population and Development Review, 9 (1983), 1-34; P. Demeny, 'Social Science and Population Policy', Population and Development Review, 14 (1988), 451-79.
4. On the increasing role of social science and social surveys in the study of population, see D. Hodgson, 'Demography as Social Science and Policy Science', Population and Development Review, 9 (1983), 1-34; P. Demeny, 'Social Science and Population Policy', Population and Development Review, 14 (1988), 451-79.
5. The strongest version of this argument is W. Anderson, 'Excremental Colonialism: Public Health and the Poetics of Pollution', Critical Inquiry, 21 (1995), 640-69.
6. My understanding of British social medicine comes from Dorothy Porter's work on John Ryle, the first profess?r of Social Medicine. D. Porter, 'John Ryle: Doctor of Revolution?', in D. Porter and R. Porter (eds), Doctors, Politics and Society; Historical Essays (Amsterdam, 1993), 229-47.
7. Porter, 'Doctor of Revolution?'.
8. M. Vaughan, Curing Their Ills: Colonial Power and African Illness (Cambridge, 1991).
9. I b i d.
10. Porter, 'Doctor of Revolution?', p. 264.
11. R. Dubos and J. Dubos, The White Plague: Tuberculosis, Man and Society (Boston, 1952).
12. The National Archives, Kew (hereafter PRO), FD 7/1020, J. G. Duncan (MRC) to J. Holm (Chief Tuberculosis Officer, WHO), 2 January 1956.
13. PRO, FD 7/1020, W. Fox (TCC, Madras) to P. D'Arcy Hart (MRC, London), 27 December 1958.
14. PRO, FD 7/1020, W. Fox to C. Mani (Regional Director, SEARO), 12 August 1956.
15. Interview with Dr C. V. Ramakrishnan, Chennai, 1 February 2003.
16. See the essays in F. Cooper and R. Packard (eds), International Development and the Social Sciences: Essays on the History and Politics of Knowledge (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1997).
17. Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, 'A Concurrent Comparison of Home and Sanatorium Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in South India', Bulletin of the WHO, 21 (1959), 51-144.
18. See my paper, 'Plague of Poverty? The World Health Organization, Tuberculosis and International Development, c. 1945-80' (Centre for History and Economics Working Paper, Cambridge, 2002).
19. WHO Library, Geneva (Henceforth WHO), SEA/TB/28, Dr J. H. Angel (WHO Medical officer), 'Assignment Report on Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras', (Restricted, November 1960).
20. Government of India, Census of India, 1961, vol. 9, Part 11 C, 'Slums of Madras City' (1965), p. 26.
21. C. V. Ramakrishnan et al., 'The Role of Diet in the Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis: An Evaluation in a Controlled Chemotherapy Study in Home and Sanatorium Patients in South India', Bulletin of the WHO, 25 (1961), 339-59, p. 339. Emphasis in original.
22. Chemotherapy Centre, 'Concurrent Comparison', p. 109.
23. Ibid., pp. 108-10.
24. See A. Sen, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (Oxford, 1981), pp. 10-12, for an historical and theoretical summary of nutritional definitions of poverty.
25. Chemotherapy Centre, 'Concurrent Comparison', p. 115.
26. Ramakrishnan et al., 'Role of Diet', p. 340.
27. Ibid., pp. 351-4.
28. Chemotherapy Centre, 'Concurrent Comparison', p. 107.
29. Ramakrishnan et al., 'Role of Diet', pp. 357-8.
30. WHO, SEA/TB/49, S. Andersen (WHO Sociologist), 'Assignment Report on National Tuberculosis Institute, Bangalore, India', (Restricted, November 1963), p. 20.
31. National Tuberculosis Institute, Bangalore, Annals of the NTI: 40 Years of Accomplishment (NTI, 2000), p. 24.
32. D. Banerji, 'Reflections of an Indian Scholar', International Journal of Health Services, 33 (2001), 163-9.
33. D. Banerji, 'Reminiscence and Reflections of a Public Health Pioneer', at: http://www.healthlibrary.com/reading/vhai/july-aug/pioneer.htm
34. D. Banerji and S. Andersen, 'A Sociological Study of Awareness of Symptoms among Persons with Pulmonary Tuberculosis', Bulletin of the WHO, 29 (1963), 665-83.
35. SEA/TB/49, p. 22.
36. Banerji and Andersen, 'Awareness of Symptoms'.
37. Ibid., p. 679.
38. An interesting comparison can be made with recent discussions on the limitations of self-reported morbidity, see C. J. L. Murray and L. C. Chen, 'Understanding Morbidity Change', Population and Development Review, 18 (1992), 481-503; A. Sen, 'Objectivity, Health and Policy', in M. Das Gupta, L. C. Chen, and T. N. Krishnan (eds), Health, Poverty and Development in India (Delhi and Oxford, 1996), 25-31.
39. An interesting comparison can be made with recent discussions on the limitations of self-reported morbidity, see C. J. L. Murray and L. C. Chen, 'Understanding Morbidity Change', Population and Development Review, 18 (1992), 481-503; A. Sen, 'Objectivity, Health and Policy', in M. Das Gupta, L. C. Chen, and T. N. Krishnan (eds), Health, Poverty and Development in India (Delhi and Oxford, 1996), 25-31.
40. Banerji and Andersen, 'Awareness of Symptoms', p. 676.
41. WHO, SEA/TB/49, p. 4.
42. Ibid., p. 25.
43. Ibid., p. 24.
44. Ibid., p. 25.
45. Ibid., p. 24.
46. S. Andersen and D. Banerji, 'A Sociological Enquiry into an Urban Tuberculosis Control Programme in India', Bulletin of WHO, 29 (1963), 685-700, p. 691.
47. WHO, SEA/TB/91, Dr D. Savic, WHO Medical Officer, 'Assignment Report on the National Tuberculosis Programme, India', (Restricted, October 1968), pp. 21-2.
48. WHO, PHA/Mass Camp/1, Government of India, Ministry of Health, 'Recommendations for a District Tuberculosis Programme in India', Annex to 'Mass Campaigns and General Health Services' (Preliminary notes), Working Paper for the WHO Secretariat Committee on Mass Campaigns and Public Health, April 1964.
49. WHO, JC13/UNICEF-WHO/Min/1, Joint Committee on Health Policy, Thirteenth Session, Minutes of the First Meeting (Restricted, January 1962).
50. Interview with Dr C. V. Ramakrishnan, Chennai, 1 February 2003.
51. M. Felton, 'Letter from India: Tackling Tuberculosis in India', New Society, 52, 26 September 1963, p. 20.
52. I b i d.
53. Chemotherapy Centre, 'Concurrent Comparison', p. 105.
54. Interview with Dr C. V. Ramakrishnan, Chennai, 1 February 2003.
55. PRO, FD7/1022, Dr J. Holm (head of TB, WHO) to W. Fox, 25 April 1957.
56. M. Felton, 'Letter from India'.
57. PRO, FD7/1022, Holm to Fox, 25 April 1957.
58. Andersen and Banerji, 'Urban Tuberculosis Control', p. 689.
59. This is James C. Scott's term. J. C. Scott, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven and London, 1998).
60. M. N. Srinivas, 'Bangalore As I See It', in Indian Society Through Personal Writings (New Delhi, 1998), ch. 3, pp. 53-5.
61. 'Slums of Madras City' (1965), p. 96.
62. Andersen and Banerji, 'Urban Tuberculosis Control', p. 690.
63. I b i d.
64. WHO, SEA/TB/44, C. M. Lomasney, WHO Nurse, 'Assignment Report on the Nursing Aspects of the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras', (Restricted, July 1963), p. 16.
65. WHO JC13/UNICEF-WHO/Min/1, p. 15.
66. S. Kunitz, 'Explanations and Ideologies of Mortality Patterns', Population and Development Review, 13 (1987), 379-408. Kunitz suggests that the debate between 'ecological' conceptions of health, and ideas of 'causal necessity' provide a key tension in the history of health in the twentieth century.
67. WHO, JC13/UNICEF-WHO/2, p. 2.
68. WHO, International Work in Tuberculosis, 1949-64 (Geneva, 1965).
69. WHO, JC13/UNICEF-WHO/2, p. 19.
70. WHO, Expert Committee on Tuberculosis, Eighth Report, Technical Reports Series, 290 (Geneva, 1964), pp. 3-4.
71. J. Crofton, 'Tuberculosis Undefeated', British Medical Journal, ii (1960), 679-87.
72. M. Raviglione and A. Pio, 'Evolution of WHO Policies for Tuberculosis Control, 1948-2001', Lancet, 359 (2002), 775-80.
73. See, amongst others, S. Litsios, 'Malaria Control, Rural Development and the Post-war Reordering of International Organizations', Medical Anthropology, 14 (1997), 255-78; K. Lee, Historical Dictionary of the World Health Organization (Lanham, MD and London, 1998); J. Siddiqi, World Health and World Politics: The World Health Organization and the UN System (London, 1995).
74. See, amongst others, S. Litsios, 'Malaria Control, Rural Development and the Post-war Reordering of International Organizations', Medical Anthropology, 14 (1997), 255-78; K. Lee, Historical Dictionary of the World Health Organization (Lanham, MD and London, 1998); J. Siddiqi, World Health and World Politics: The World Health Organization and the UN System (London, 1995).
75. See, amongst others, S. Litsios, 'Malaria Control, Rural Development and the Post-war Reordering of International Organizations', Medical Anthropology, 14 (1997), 255-78; K. Lee, Historical Dictionary of the World Health Organization (Lanham, MD and London, 1998); J. Siddiqi, World Health and World Politics: The World Health Organization and the UN System (London, 1995).
76. F. L. Soper, quoted in Kunitz, 'Explanations and Ideologies', p. 382.
77. WHO, Expert Committee on Tuberculosis, Eighth Report, Technical Reports Series, No. 290 (Geneva, 1964).
78. See Amrith, 'Plague of Poverty?', p. 64.
79. Cf., P. Greenough, 'Intimidation, Coercion and Resistance in the Final Stages of the South Asian Smallpox Eradication Campaign, 1973-5', Social Science and Medicine, 41 (1995), 633-45.
80. M. Foucault, 'The Politics of Health in the Eighteenth Century', in P. Rabinow (ed.), The Foucault Reader (London, 1984), p. 285.
81. Cf., Vaughan, Curing Their Ills.
82. WHO, AFR 192/03-04, Dr H. Mahler, 'Priority Considerations for the Formulation of an Effective National Tuberculosis Programme in Africa', Seminar on Integrated Tuberculosis Control, Brazzaville (1969), p. 5.
83. R. Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (rev. ed., London, 1983), pp. 78-9.
84. See P. Farmer, 'The Consumption of the Poor: Tuberculosis in the Twenty-first Century', Ethnography, 1 (2000), 183-216. Farmer reminds us that tuberculosis has never disappeared from the lives of the poor and marginalized in the United States.
85. See R. Coker, From Chaos to Coercion: Detention and the Control of Tuberculosis (New York, 2000).
86. WHO, Groups at Risk: Report on the Global Tuberculosis Epidemic (Geneva, 1996).