Health and medicine in twentieth-century Latin America: historical perspectives on the Cold War

Abstract

Scholars of Latin America are familiar with the narrative of the Cold War in the region. The stories we tell about the second half of the twentieth century often rely on narrative scaffolding provided by the Cold War; after all, the global influence of the ideological, political, economic, and military battles between the United States and Soviet Union permeated all aspects of people's lives to various degrees. In these stories, the Latin American Third World is presented as influenced, persuaded, and pressured by the two global superpowers while politicians and policymakers made decisions about the path nations would take towards development and globalization (see, e.g., Smith, 2007). In Peripheral nerve: health and medicine in Cold War Latin America, Anne-Emanuelle Birn and Raúl Necochea López present a different way to look at the Cold War era in Latin America, with a more nuanced view of how different people in different places experienced, reacted to, and acted during the Cold War. This is not an alternative approach meant to decenter the Cold War: on the contrary, the authors and editors illustrate the complexity of the Cold War on the ground, on the so-called peripheries of development. This book demonstrates that people in Latin America had the "nerve" to face international pressures and make choices that, while under the veil of the Cold War dichotomy, had more to do with the individual local realities than the larger battle between First and Second Worlds. To learn how Latin Americans dealt with the Cold War on a local and international level this book is essential.Against the larger backdrop of the Cold War, this volume concentrates thematically on the history of health and medicine. This entry point is valuable because policies that govern public health and knowledge that shapes medical fields are linked to political ideologies. But more importantly, health and medicine are inextricably tied to the life of each and Health and medicine in twentieth-century Latin America: historical perspectives on the Cold War

Yellow Fever: A Perennial Threat

“…Large-scale outbreaks of YF occurred in African territories including Senegal, Gambia, Angola, Sierra Leon, the Canary Islands, and Nigeria. In the US, major epidemics of YF affected more than 23 states (38)(39). Some of these outbreaks spread via ships traveling up the Mississippi River, reaching the continental US through the Gulf of Mexico from Havana, Cuba (38)(39).…”

“…In the US, major epidemics of YF affected more than 23 states (38)(39). Some of these outbreaks spread via ships traveling up the Mississippi River, reaching the continental US through the Gulf of Mexico from Havana, Cuba (38)(39). YF was a major cause of illness and mortality in the US during the 18 th and 19 th centuries.…”