Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States - Hardcover

Humphreys, Margaret

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801866375 ISBN 13: 9780801866371

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001

Synopsis

In Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States, Margaret Humphreys presents the first book-length account of the parasitic, insect-borne disease that has infected millions and influenced settlement patterns, economic development, and the quality of life at every level of American society, especially in the south.

Humphreys approaches malaria from three perspectives: the parasite's biological history, the medical response to it, and the patient's experience of the disease. It addresses numerous questions including how the parasite thrives and eventually becomes vulnerable, how professionals came to know about the parasite and learned how to fight them, and how people view the disease and came to the point where they could understand and support the struggle against it.

In addition Malaria: Poverty, Race, and Public Health in the United States argues that malaria control was central to the evolution of local and federal intervention in public health, and demonstrates the complex interaction between poverty, race, and geography in determining the fate of malaria.

About this title

Book Description:

This is the story of a war against a disease that we can never win but must continue to fight.

From the Publisher:

"Humphreys, trained both as a physician and a historian, is uniquely qualified to tell the story of malaria in the United States. She uses her medical knowledge and her understanding of the social history of the United States, particularly of the South, to reveal malaria's previously unexplored American career. It is a story containing some unexpected twists that Humphreys reveals with thoughtfulness, elegance, and wit. She allows readers to see malaria's history from the various perspectives of physicians, patients, communities, and public health workers."—Todd L. Savitt, Ph.D., Brody School of Medicine, East Carolina University

"Margaret Humphrey's eminently readable and convincing history of malaria in the United States follows in the tradition of Erwin H. Ackerknecht's classic study, completing the story that work began by describing malaria's last stand in the southeastern United States and by carefully analyzing the factors which let to its final demise. More than an exercise in historical epidemiology, this book offers fascinating insights into scientific and popular ideas concerning disease and healing." —Randall M. Packard, Department of History, Emory University

About this edition

• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0801866375
• ISBN 13: 9780801866371
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208