Intimidation, coercion and resistance in the final stages of the South Asian Smallpox Eradication Campaign, 1973-1975

Paul Greenough

Social Science & Medicine, 1995, vol. 41, issue 5, 633-645

Abstract: This paper reviews episodes during 1973-1975 when American physician-epidemiologists in South Asia, working under the auspices of the World Health Organization, intimidated local health officials and resorted to coercive methods in the final stages of the Smallpox Eradication Programme. While intimidation and coercion were successful in the short-run in ensuring disease containment, they evoked health-professional and popular resentments, and the long-term effect may have been to foster negative attitudes toward subsequent vaccination campaigns. At the very least these episodes suggest a need for paying attention to actual and perceived abuses when global health measures are introduced from 'above' into regional settings.

Keywords: smallpox; eradication; coercion; South; Asia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(95)00035-6
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:41:y:1995:i:5:p:633-645

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().