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Qin R, Alayande B, Okolo I, Khanyola J, Jumbam DT, Koea J, Boatin AA, Lugobe HM, Bump J. Colonisation and its aftermath: reimagining global surgery. BMJ Glob Health 2024; 9:e014173. [PMID: 38176746 PMCID: PMC10773343 DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2023-014173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2023] [Accepted: 11/24/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Coloniality in global health manifests as systemic inequalities, not based on merit, that benefit one group at the expense of another. Global surgery seeks to advance equity by inserting surgery into the global health agenda; however, it inherits the biases in global health. As a diverse group of global surgery practitioners, we aimed to examine inequities in global surgery. Using a structured, iterative, group Delphi consensus-building process drawing on the literature and our lived experiences, we identified five categories of non-merit inequalities in global surgery. These include Western epistemology, geographies of inequity, unequal participation, resource extraction, and asymmetric power and control. We observed that global surgery is dominated by Western biomedicine, characterised by the lack of interprofessional and interspecialty collaboration, incorporation of Indigenous medical systems, and social, cultural, and environmental contexts. Global surgery is Western-centric and exclusive, with a unidirectional flow of personnel from the Global North to the Global South. There is unequal participation by location (Global South), gender (female), specialty (obstetrics and anaesthesia) and profession ('non-specialists', non-clinicians, patients and communities). Benefits, such as funding, authorship and education, mostly flow towards the Global North. Institutions in the Global North have disproportionate control over priority setting, knowledge production, funding and standards creation. This naturalises inequities and masks upstream resource extraction. Guided by these five categories, we concluded that shifting global surgery towards equity entails building inclusive, pluralist, polycentric models of surgical care by providers who represent the community, with resource controlled and governance driven by communities in each setting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rennie Qin
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
- Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Barnabas Alayande
- Center for Equity in Global Surgery, University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Gasabo, Rwanda
- Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Isioma Okolo
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, NHS Slothian, Edinburgh, UK
| | - Judy Khanyola
- Center for Nursing and Midwifery, University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Gasabo, Rwanda
| | - Desmond Tanko Jumbam
- Department of Health Policy and Advocacy, Operation Smile, Virginia Beach, Virginia, USA
| | - Jonathan Koea
- Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, The University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
| | - Adeline A Boatin
- Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Center for Global Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Henry Mark Lugobe
- Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mbarara University of Science and Technology Faculty of Medicine, Mbarara, Uganda
| | - Jesse Bump
- Global Health and Population, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Bergen Center for Ethics and Priority Setting, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
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Lemoh C, Xiao Y, Tran L, Yussf N, Moro P, Dutertre S, Wallace J. An Intersectional Approach to Hepatitis B. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH 2023; 20:4879. [PMID: 36981797 PMCID: PMC10049575 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph20064879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2023] [Revised: 03/03/2023] [Accepted: 03/07/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Hepatitis B is a chronic condition, primarily associated with hepatitis B viral infection in early life. The failure of prevention and appropriate management can lead to subsequent liver cirrhosis and cancer. Hepatitis B most commonly affects people born in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and their global diasporas. The physical, psychological, and social impacts of hepatitis B are strongly influenced by sex and gender. Inequities in access to timely, sensitive diagnosis and effective management arise from interactions between structural inequalities related to race, ethnicity, Indigenous/settler status, class, and geography. The biomedical response to hepatitis B has led to advances in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, but many affected communities have explanatory health belief models that differ from that of biomedicine. We argue that an intersectional approach, led by affected people and communities, can integrate biomedicine with the lived experience and social context that give purpose to and shape all personal, communal, clinical, and public health responses to hepatitis B. This approach has the potential to enable a consciously equitable, effective response to the biopsychosocial complexities of hepatitis B, improve the health and wellbeing of people living with hepatitis B, and reduce hepatitis B-associated mortality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christopher Lemoh
- Department of Medicine, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Yinzong Xiao
- Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
| | - Lien Tran
- Department of Medicine, Melbourne Medical School, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
| | - Nafisa Yussf
- WHO Collaborating Centre for Viral Hepatitis, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
- Department of Infectious Diseases, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
| | - Piergiorgio Moro
- Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health, North Richmond Community Health, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia
| | - Sophie Dutertre
- Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health, North Richmond Community Health, Richmond, VIC 3121, Australia
| | - Jack Wallace
- Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC 3004, Australia
- Centre for Social Research in Health, University of New South Wales, Kensington, NSW 2052, Australia
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Gorsky M, Manton J. The political economy of 'strengthening health services': The view from WHO AFRO, 1951-c.1985. Soc Sci Med 2023; 319:115412. [PMID: 36566115 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115412] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/28/2021] [Revised: 08/02/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
Our contribution to this special issue examines the early history of international striving for universal health care, from the perspective of the World Health Organisation's (WHO's) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO). The aspiration was repeatedly reframed, from 'strengthening health services' in the 1948 constitution of the World Health Organisation (WHO), to 'Health For All' through primary health care (PHC) in the 1970s, to today's articulations of universal coverage and 'health systems strengthening'. We aim to establish how AFRO supported member states in implementing these policies up to the mid-1980s, and with what degree of success. We also compare AFRO's experience to the established historiographical narrative of global health, as over-fixated on vertical interventions, save for the transitory impact of the PHC movement. Using the archives of WHO in Geneva and AFRO in Brazzaville, we first analyse AFRO's influence and capacity through quantitative financial data. The AFRO nations were net recipients of WHO resources, raising questions about their relative autonomy and voice in the organisation. We then examine AFRO's expenditure, showing that though circumscribed by funds with allocated purposes, there was nonetheless a significant proportion committed to services from the early 1960s, specifically capacity for planning and administration and the nursing, maternal and child health workforce. Counter to expectations though, there was no significant boost to these areas, nor to funding PHC projects, in the 1970s/early 1980s, when disease-specific interventions obtained a larger share. Qualitative sources show that despite its slender resources AFRO accomplished much with respect to training, capacity building and supporting innovative service-delivery, while insisting on African policy input into design and implementation. However country level system-wide planning in health was persistently vulnerable, and the bureaucratic capacity of post-colonial states often weak. Thus AFRO's overall impact was decisively bounded by the global structural inequalities in which it operated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Gorsky
- Centre for History in Public Health, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, WC1H 9SH, UK.
| | - John Manton
- Centre for History in Public Health, Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 15-17 Tavistock Place, WC1H 9SH, UK.
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Manton J. Qua Iboe by motorcycle and launch: brokering public health coverage in 1960s Southeastern Nigeria. EUROPEAN REVIEW OF HISTORY = REVUE EUROPEENE D'HISTOIRE 2022; 28:814-834. [PMID: 35115882 PMCID: PMC8802893 DOI: 10.1080/13507486.2021.1958762] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2020] [Accepted: 07/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Long an expatriate-run concern, leprosy control was subsumed as a key component of rural public health in the years following Nigerian Independence in 1960 by the enlisting of a cadre of African inspectors, deployed across an existing institutional landscape by a newly Nigerianized medical bureaucracy. The performative norms of leprosy control, once thoroughly colonial and suffused with the ripe vocabulary of a long-entrenched missionary diaspora, were renovated at the heart of a new concern with rural public health more broadly, as the needs, expectations and hierarchies encoded in relations between patient, court, bureaucrat and medical worker shifted and settled in accordance with new political horizons. For health workers, issues of patient and worker mobility, drug delivery, patient and community expectation, and their own physical and financial security were dramatized in a series of commentaries, complaints and reports denoting deeply felt anxieties over the viability of careers in the service of Nigerian health. This article outlines struggles surrounding leprosy control and rural public health work in the Qua Iboe Mission catchment, administered by the newly created Ikot Ekpene Medical Field Unit. It documents a shift in medical work from European missionary to national and technocratic, the foregrounding of concerns with African (worker and patient) welfare and mobility, and the emergence of novel post-colonial forms of public health advocacy and politics along the highways and byways of Ibibio- and Annang-speaking areas of southeastern Nigeria in the 1960s.
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Affiliation(s)
- John Manton
- Centre for History in Public Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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Topp SM, Schaaf M, Sriram V, Scott K, Dalglish SL, Nelson EM, Sr R, Mishra A, Asthana S, Parashar R, Marten R, Costa JGQ, Sacks E, Br R, Reyes KAV, Singh S. Power analysis in health policy and systems research: a guide to research conceptualisation. BMJ Glob Health 2021; 6:bmjgh-2021-007268. [PMID: 34740915 PMCID: PMC8573637 DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2021-007268] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2021] [Accepted: 10/12/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Power is a growing area of study for researchers and practitioners working in the field of health policy and systems research (HPSR). Theoretical development and empirical research on power are crucial for providing deeper, more nuanced understandings of the mechanisms and structures leading to social inequities and health disparities; placing contemporary policy concerns in a wider historical, political and social context; and for contributing to the (re)design or reform of health systems to drive progress towards improved health outcomes. Nonetheless, explicit analyses of power in HPSR remain relatively infrequent, and there are no comprehensive resources that serve as theoretical and methodological starting points. This paper aims to fill this gap by providing a consolidated guide to researchers wishing to consider, design and conduct power analyses of health policies or systems. This practice article presents a synthesis of theoretical and conceptual understandings of power; describes methodologies and approaches for conducting power analyses; discusses how they might be appropriately combined; and throughout reflects on the importance of engaging with positionality through reflexive praxis. Expanding research on power in health policy and systems will generate key insights needed to address underlying drivers of health disparities and strengthen health systems for all.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie M Topp
- College of Public Health Medical and Veterinary Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia .,Nossal Institute for Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
| | | | - Veena Sriram
- School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
| | - Kerry Scott
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,Independent Consultant, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Sarah L Dalglish
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.,Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK
| | - Erica Marie Nelson
- Health and Nutrition Cluster, Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK
| | - Rajasulochana Sr
- Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Arima Mishra
- Azim Premji University, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
| | | | | | - Robert Marten
- Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO, Geneva, Switzerland
| | | | - Emma Sacks
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | - Rajeev Br
- Society for Community Health Awareness Research and Action, Bangalore, Karnataka, India
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An Overview of Healthcare Systems in Comoros: The Effects of Two Decades of Political Instability. Ann Glob Health 2021; 87:84. [PMID: 34458108 PMCID: PMC8378088 DOI: 10.5334/aogh.3100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: There is ongoing scientific evidence pointing out the adverse effects of conflict on population health and development. Union of Comoros has experienced nearly two decades of political instability and military rule. This comprehensive review was carried out to ask whether the health crisis in Comoros is attributable to the consequences of the chronic political instability. Methods: This study involved a series of semi-structured interviews with key informants complemented by a comprehensive literature search of electronic databases and grey literature. A literature search was performed using all identified keywords associated with health indicators in Comoros to identify potential eligible publications in both English and French from 1975 to July 2020. Results: The analysis demonstrated that political instability and lack of proper leadership from the Government undermine the establishment of health policies which contributed dramatically to the decline in health performance. Additionally, the resurgence and emergence of old and new diseases such as cholera, chikungunya, malaria, HIV/AIDS as indicators of inadequate health services were most likely during political turmoil. Data also showed an out-migration of the health workforce and an increased overseas medical treatment demand, which indicate less attractive working conditions and weak health systems in the country. Meanwhile, an increasing performance of health status indicators was observed after the comprehensive peace process of the 2000-Fomboni Declaration. Conclusions: The chronic political instability in Comoros has contributed to the health crisis facing the Union of Comoros. It has hampered the implementation of proper institutions, which might guarantee the socio-economic development and prosperity of the population. Further studies were needed to evaluate the health burden associated with the two decades of political instability and military rule.
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7
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Havik PJ. Regional cooperation and health diplomacy in Africa: from intra-colonial exchanges to multilateral health institutions. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2020; 27:123-144. [PMID: 32997060 DOI: 10.1590/s0104-59702020000300007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2019] [Accepted: 11/13/2019] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
Tracing the pathways of cooperation in health in sub-Saharan Africa from hesitant exchanges to institutionalized dimensions from the 1920s to the early 1960s, this article addresses regional dynamics in health diplomacy which have so far been under-researched. The evolution thereof from early beginnings with the League of Nations Health Organization to the Commission for Technical Assistance South of the Sahara and the World Health Organization's Regional Office for Africa, shows how bilateral dimensions were superseded by WHO's multilateral model of regional cooperation in health. Alignments, divergences, and outcomes are explored with respect to the strategies and policies pursued by colonial powers and independent African states regarding inter-regional relations, and their implications for public health and epidemiological interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philip J Havik
- Researcher, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical/ Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Lisboa - Portugal
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8
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Kirchhelle C, Atkinson P, Broom A, Chuengsatiansup K, Ferreira JP, Fortané N, Frost I, Gradmann C, Hinchliffe S, Hoffman SJ, Lezaun J, Nayiga S, Outterson K, Podolsky SH, Raymond S, Roberts AP, Singer AC, So AD, Sringernyuang L, Tayler E, Rogers Van Katwyk S, Chandler CIR. Setting the standard: multidisciplinary hallmarks for structural, equitable and tracked antibiotic policy. BMJ Glob Health 2020; 5:e003091. [PMID: 32967980 PMCID: PMC7513567 DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/05/2020] [Revised: 07/31/2020] [Accepted: 08/03/2020] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
There is increasing concern globally about the enormity of the threats posed by antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to human, animal, plant and environmental health. A proliferation of international, national and institutional reports on the problems posed by AMR and the need for antibiotic stewardship have galvanised attention on the global stage. However, the AMR community increasingly laments a lack of action, often identified as an 'implementation gap'. At a policy level, the design of internationally salient solutions that are able to address AMR's interconnected biological and social (historical, political, economic and cultural) dimensions is not straightforward. This multidisciplinary paper responds by asking two basic questions: (A) Is a universal approach to AMR policy and antibiotic stewardship possible? (B) If yes, what hallmarks characterise 'good' antibiotic policy? Our multistage analysis revealed four central challenges facing current international antibiotic policy: metrics, prioritisation, implementation and inequality. In response to this diagnosis, we propose three hallmarks that can support robust international antibiotic policy. Emerging hallmarks for good antibiotic policies are: Structural, Equitable and Tracked. We describe these hallmarks and propose their consideration should aid the design and evaluation of international antibiotic policies with maximal benefit at both local and international scales.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claas Kirchhelle
- School of History, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK
| | - Paul Atkinson
- Department of Public Health and Policy/ Institute of Infection and Global Health, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK
| | - Alex Broom
- School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | | | - Jorge Pinto Ferreira
- Antimicrobial Resistance and Veterinary Products Department, World Organisation for Animal Health, Paris, Île-de-France, France
| | - Nicolas Fortané
- Irisso, Paris-Dauphine University, PSL, INRAE, Paris, Île-de-France, France
| | - Isabel Frost
- Center for Disease Dynamics Economics and Policy, Washington, DC, USA
- Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London, London, UK
| | - Christoph Gradmann
- Institute for Health and Society, Dept. of Community Medicine and Global Health, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Stephen Hinchliffe
- Geography, College of Life and Environmental Sciences and Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health, University of Exeter, Exeter, Devon, UK
| | - Steven J Hoffman
- Global Strategy Lab, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Javier Lezaun
- Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK
| | - Susan Nayiga
- Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration, Kampala, Central Region, Uganda
| | - Kevin Outterson
- School of Law, Social Innovation on Drug Program, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Scott H Podolsky
- Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
| | - Stephanie Raymond
- School of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Adam P Roberts
- Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
| | - Andrew C Singer
- Pollution, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK
| | - Anthony D So
- Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
- Innovation + Design Enabling Access (IDEA) Initiative, ReAct - Action on Antibiotic Resistance, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
| | | | - Elizabeth Tayler
- Global Coordination and Partnerships, AMR Division, World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Susan Rogers Van Katwyk
- Global Strategy Lab, Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, Faculty of Health and Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Global Strategy Lab, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| | - Clare I R Chandler
- Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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Abstract
We combine methodology from history and genetics to reconstruct the biosocial history of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi). We show how evolutionary divergence in S. Typhi was driven by rising global antibiotic use and by the neglect of typhoid outside of high-income countries. Although high-income countries pioneered 1960s precautionary antibiotic regulations to prevent selection for multidrug resistance, new antibiotic classes, typhoid's cultural status as a supposedly ancient disease of "undeveloped" countries, limited international funding, and narrow biosecurity agendas helped fragment effective global collective action for typhoid control. Antibiotic-intensive compensation for weak water and healthcare systems subsequently fueled AMR selection in low- and middle-income countries but often remained invisible due to lacking surveillance capabilities. The recent rise of extensively drug-resistant typhoid bears the biosocial footprint of more than half a century of antibiotic-intensive international neglect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claas Kirchhelle
- Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine/Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, United Kingdom
| | - Zoe Anne Dyson
- Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, United Kingdom
| | - Gordon Dougan
- Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, United Kingdom
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10
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Vanderslott S, Phillips MT, Pitzer VE, Kirchhelle C. Water and Filth: Reevaluating the First Era of Sanitary Typhoid Intervention (1840-1940). Clin Infect Dis 2019; 69:S377-S384. [PMID: 31612942 PMCID: PMC6792102 DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciz610] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/14/2022] Open
Abstract
While typhoid fever remains an important cause of illness in many low- and middle-income countries, important insights can be learned by exploring the historical experience with typhoid fever in industrialized countries. We used archival research to examine British and American attempts to control typhoid via sanitary interventions from the 1840s to 1940s. First, we assess how varying perceptions of typhoid and conflicts of interest led to a nonlinear evolution of control attempts in Oxford, United Kingdom. Our qualitative analysis shows how professional rivalries and tensions between Oxford's university and citizens ("gown and town"), as well as competing theories of typhoid proliferation stalled sanitary reform until the provision of cheap external credit created cross-party alliances at the municipal level. Second, we use historical mortality data to evaluate and quantify the impact of individual sanitary measures on typhoid transmission in major US cities. Together a historiographic and epidemiological study of past interventions provides insights for the planning of future sanitary programs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Maile T Phillips
- Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Virginia E Pitzer
- Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
| | - Claas Kirchhelle
- Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine/Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
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