Main description:

Global Health in Africa is a first exploration of selected histories of global health initiatives in Africa. The collection addresses some of the most important interventions in disease control, including mass vaccination, large-scale treatment and/or prophylaxis campaigns, harm reduction efforts, and nutritional and virological research.
The chapters in this collection are organized in three sections that evaluate linkages between past, present, and emergent. Part I, "Looking Back," contains four chapters that analyze colonial-era interventions and reflect upon their implications for contemporary interventions. Part II, "The Past in the Present," contains essays exploring the historical dimensions and unexamined assumptions of contemporary disease control programs. Part III, "The Past in the Future," examines two fields of public health intervention in which efforts to reduce disease transmission and future harm are premised on an understanding of the past.

This much-needed volume brings together international experts from the disciplines of demography, anthropology, and historical epidemiology. Covering health initiatives from smallpox vaccinations to malaria control to HIV campaigns, Global Health in Africa offers a first comprehensive look at some of global health's most important challenges.

Contents:

Acknowledgments
Introduction
James L. A. Webb, Jr. and Tamara Giles-Vernick
Part I. Looking Back
One: The Long History of Smallpox Eradication

Lessons for Global Health in Africa

William H. Schneider
Two: The First Large-Scale Use of Synthetic Insecticide for Malaria Control in Tropical Africa

Lessons from Liberia, 1945-62

James L. A. Webb, Jr.
Three: A Genealogy of Treatment as Prevention (TasP)

Prevention, Therapy, and the Tensions of Public Health in African History

Guillaume Lachenal
Four: The True Fiasco

The Treatment and Prevention of Severe Acute Malnutrition in Uganda, 1950-74

Jennifer Tappan
Part II. The Past in the Present
Five: People, Great Apes, Disease, and Global Health in the Northern Forests of Equatorial Africa

Tamara Giles-Vernick and Stephanie Rupp
Six: Defenseless Bodies and Violent Afflictions in a Global World

Blood, Iatrogenesis, and Hepatitis C Transmission in Egypt

Anne Marie Moulin
Seven: "Snake in the Belly"

Africa's Unhappy Experience with Cholera during the Seventh Pandemic, 1971 to the Present

Myron Echenberg
Part III. The Past in the Future
Eight: Male Circumcision and HIV Control in Africa

Questioning Scientific Evidence and the Decision-Making Process

Michel Garenne, Alain Giami, and Christophe Perrey
Nine: Heroin Use, Trafficking, and Intervention Approaches in Sub-Saharan Africa

Local and Global Contexts

Sheryl McCurdy and Haruka Maruyama
About the Contributors
Index