From occupational disease to social disease: the battle against malaria in Italy (original) (raw)
Related papers
Malaria and technological networks: medical geography in the Pontine Marshes, Italy, in the 1930s
Geographical Journal, 2006
This paper examines the struggle against malaria undertaken by the fascist regime in the Pontine Marshes, south of Rome, and relates it to discourses of domination of nature on the one hand, and modernization and civilization through technological networks such as health and medical networks on the other. The marshes’‘first nature’ is described first of all, focusing on malaria and the difficulty of making an impact on marsh biology before the fascist enterprise and before the large-scale employment of modern technology for the subjugation, channelling and development of the marshes. Secondly, the paper focuses on the organization of medical anti-malaria networks in the marshes during the years immediately preceding and during the fascist period (1922–43). Thirdly, the ‘second nature’ produced in the marshes following the land reclamation and anti-malaria projects is examined, and an assessment is provided of the fascist anti-malaria project in the marshes.
Villa Estates and Malaria Risk in Roman Central Italy
American Journal of Archaeology, 2024
Malaria has persisted in Italy since the Roman Imperial period, if not as early as the second century BCE. Yet little is known regarding Romans’ everyday interactions with this historically oppressive mosquito-borne disease, knowledge of which is crucial for understanding the broader significance of malaria in Roman history. This is in part due to the limitations of current approaches for studying ancient malaria which focus primarily on diagnosing specific incidences of infection. Drawing on landscape epidemiology and contemporary malariology, this article shifts focus towards a more holistic understanding of the multifaceted determinants of malaria and its transmission in antiquity, with particular emphasis on Roman villa estates in central Italy. It is argued that, despite the presence of malaria and the naturally high risk of transmission throughout much of the region, villa estates very likely reduced local risk of malaria transmission by utilizing a suite of agricultural practices that reduced local mosquito densities and separated susceptible hosts and malaria’s mosquito vectors. In addition to improving our understanding of the specific entanglement between Roman villa estate agriculture and malaria in central Italy, this article demonstrates the benefit of an interdisciplinary approach and the interpretive utility of archaeological evidence for ancient disease studies more broadly.
The fight against malaria in Sardinia at the turn of the 20th Century: a lesson for the present
2019
The fight against malaria in Sardinia at the turn of the 20th Century: a lesson for the present This article seeks to estimate the health burden of malaria in Sardinia between the last decades of the 19th Century and the first decades of the 20th Century, emphasizing the distinctive features of the disease in the island. The analysis illustrates the exceptional significance of malaria experience in Sardinia, due to the extremely high death risks among children caused by the epidemiological and seasonal characteristics of the disease. The authors also aim to analyse the effectiveness of the quinine campaign, which allowed a gradual reduction of mortality, without definitively defeating the disease. The partial failure of the health campaign was mainly due to the extreme poverty of the population, its low literacy, and the scarcity of health-infrastructures in the more rural and remote areas of the island. The article provides an analysis, as complete as possible based on the availabl...
The communities affected by toxic contamination in Campania, Italy, have had to confront the challenge of proving a direct causal connection between exposure to pollutants and health issues, given a long history of mismanagement of waste. Medical studies have been conducted, but the social and political debate is static. In September 2014, the Italian Ministry of Health simply repeated earlier statements that Campania's increasing cancer rates are due to poor lifestyle habits. The article casts light on the politicization of ill bodies of Campania. We analyze three practices of political action and resistance which employed the subjectivization of physical bodies and illnesses to expose environmental injustice affecting communities. In the neighborhood of Pianura, Naples, people gathered medical records as evidence for a trial into 'culpable epidemics.' In the so-called Land of Fires, in the northern periphery of Naples, hundreds of postcards featuring pictures of children killed by rare pathologies were sent to the Italian Head of State and the Pope. Finally, in the town of Acerra, the blood of a dying shepherd became a political object to prove exposure to dioxin contamination in that area. The politicization of illness and bodies conflates the public and private, challenges the mainstream production of knowledge, and proposes an alternative narrative for affected communities and individuals. Nevertheless, the practices of this politicization have differed and are not always 'political', as we will show through the three cases. Les communautés affectées par la contamination toxique en Campanie, en Italie, ont dû faire face au défi de prouver un lien de causalité direct entre l'exposition aux polluants et les problèmes de santé, compte tenu d'une longue histoire de mauvaise gestion des déchets. Des études médicales ont été menées, mais le débat social et politique est statique. En septembre 2014, le ministère italien de la Santé a tout simplement répété des déclarations antérieures selon lesquelles les taux croissants de cancer en Campanie sont dus à de mauvaises habitudes de vie. L'article éclaire la politisation des corps malades de la Campanie. Nous analysons trois pratiques d'action politique et de résistance qui utilisaient la subjectivisation des corps physiques et des maladies pour exposer les injustices environnementales qui affectent les communautés. Dans le voisinage de Pianura, Naples, les gens ont rassemblé des dossiers médicaux comme preuve pour un procès en «épidémies coupables». Dans le pays de Fires, dans la périphérie nord de Naples, des centaines de cartes postales contenant des photos d'enfants tués par des pathologies rares ont été envoyées au chef de l'État italien et au pape. Enfin, dans la ville d'Acerra, le sang d'un berger mourant est devenu un objet politique pour prouver l'exposition à la contamination par les dioxines dans cette zone. La politisation des maladies et des corps confond le public et le privé, remet en question la production traditionnelle de connaissances et propose un récit alternatif pour les communautés et les individus touchés. Néanmoins, les pratiques de cette politisation ont divergé et ne sont pas toujours «politiques», comme nous le montrerons à travers les trois cas. Las comunidades afectadas por la contaminación tóxica en Campania, Italia, han tenido que enfrentar el reto de demostrar una relación causal directa entre la exposición a los contaminantes y problemas de salud, dada una larga historia de mala gestión de residuos. Aunque se han realizado estudios médicos, el debate social y político ha estado estático. En septiembre de 2014, el Ministerio de Sanidad italiano se limitó a repetir declaraciones anteriores de que el aumento de las tasas de cáncer de Campania es debido a los malos costumbres de vida. El artículo arroja luz sobre la politización de los cuerpos enfermos de Campania. Se analizan tres prácticas de acción política y resistencia que emplearon la subjetivación de cuerpos físicos y de enfermedades para exponer la injusticia ambiental que afecta a las comunidades. En el barrio de Pianura, Nápoles, la gente ha recolectado los registros médicos como prueba para un ensayo en ‘epidemias culpables’. En la llamada Tierra de los Fuegos, en la periferia norte de Nápoles, cientos de postales con imágenes de niños muertos por patologías raras fueron enviados al Jefe de Estado italiano y el Papa. Por último, en el municipio de Acerra, la sangre de un pastor agonizante se convirtió en un objeto político para demostrar la exposición a la contaminación por dioxinas en esa zona. La politización de la enfermedad y los cuerpos mezcla lo público con lo privado, se opone a la producción de conocimiento convencional, y propone una narrativa alternativa para las comunidades y los individuos afectados. Sin embargo, las prácticas de este politización han sido bastante diferente y no siempre políticas, como se verá a través de los tres casos.
THE REGULATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH IN ITALIAN MEDIEVAL TOWNS,
in DIE VIELFALT DER DINGE Neue Wege zur Analyse mittelalterlicher Sachkultur, INTERNATIONALER KONGRESS KREMS AN DER DONAU 4. bis 7. OKTOBER 1994, GEDENKSCHRIFT IN MEMORIAM HARRY KOHNEL, DER OSTERREICHISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN WIEN1998, pp. 345-357
Miasma: Malaria’s Breeding Grounds and Effects on Ancient Rome
Past Imperfect, University of Alberta, 2020
people of ancient Rome did not know what malaria was or the connection between fever and mosquitos; rather they knew that bad air (miasma) gave feverous symptoms that could cause death. 3 Furthermore, some people, such as those who observed the progress of fevers through Hippocratic medicine, developed ideas on the nature of the disease, though they continued to revolve around typifying fevers. 4 The following discusses the symptoms of malaria and its impact on the environment and the people. As well, by considering different physical landscapes, the city and the marshland, it becomes clear that malaria had an impact on the physical environment as well as people. Relevant to this study is one archaeological site that unearthed peculiar evidence, the Lugnano child cemetery, which has allowed researchers to gain further insight concerning the effects of malaria on towns and rural landscapes. This paper examines the interconnection between malaria and the environment, demonstrating that malaria played a destructive role in the livelihood of Roman society and their physical environment. The Origin of Malaria Before the nineteenth century malaria was believed to be simply bad air that attacked humans in a miasmatic form; however, recent studies have concluded that the malarial parasite came from Anopheles mosquitos. 5 It was not until 1800 that this miasmatic idea was discarded when Dr. Charles Laveran discovered the connection between mosquitos and the fevers people experienced with malaria. 6 There are two-hundred species of malarial parasites which primarily infect primates, rodents, bats, birds, and humans. The species of mosquitos which are vectors for
Epidemics and State Medicine in Fifteenth-Century Milan
Medicine from the Black Death to the French Disease, 2019
Giovanni Catelano died in 1497, five hundred years ago. In medical circles he vs^as knovi^n vi^ell only in Milan, but there he was prominent enough that advisers could beg Duke Ludovico Sforza to pay a visit to him before he died.^Through his involvement in civic projects advanced by Ludovico's father, the great Renaissance warlord Francesco Sforza, Catelano allied his training in medicine with the interests of early^no^raltatr^M^TEeTiw'^p rimary~witness to CatelSo's dedication, and to the evidence of an important way that recurrent plague epidemics effected profound medical changes in urban Europe. Althdugh Catelano died just before the French disease offered further challenges to a stable Galenic view of disease, the evidence of this Milanese physician's diagnoses of causes of death illustrates that new diseases were already a troubling feature of the late fifteenth-century medical world. Moreover the casual but necessary process of assigning an official cause to deaths privileged anatomical localization with attention to either the body's surface or to the patient's story. Giovanni Catelano's name appears in 1452, linked to the first three cases of the earliest surviving register of the Milanese Necrologi? A fierce and costly plague was ending, but the death registers stalwartly recorded details of each new plague death. Catelano reported a newly infected household on Friday, 21 July: an 18-year-old woman named Caterina fell ill on 19 July, and now evidenced a pestiferous 'dragonzello' or Ijubo in her left groin. At the 'Locus Montanee' (a temporary pest house)^a 29-year-old woman died of a pestiferous dragonzello in the right groin, by Catelano's judgement on 17 July. Finally, this day he also reported that in the convent of St Euffemia, 50-year-old Lucia, wife of lord Alesio Aliprandi, died from 'anthrax' in the left hip, of the pestiferous kind, according to Catelano's judgement on 13 July. These earliest records do not always clarify the various dates involved, that is, the point at which Catelano actually made his inspection of the ill person, or the cadavernor if, in fact, he personally viewed the body rather than simply talked to one who had seen the deceased.