The Health of Nations: The Campaign to End Polio and Eradicate Epidemic Diseases

by Karen Bartlett

Overview

‘Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.’ – Jonas Salk, inventor of one of the first successful polio vaccines

No one will die of smallpox again…

One of the worst killers ever is now consigned to history – perhaps the greatest humanitarian achievement of our age. Now polio, malaria and measles are on the hit list.

Karen Bartlett tells the dramatic story of the history of eradication and takes us to the heart of modern campaigns. From high-tech labs in America to the poorest corners of Africa and the Middle East, we see the tremendous challenges those on the front lines face every day, and how they take us closer to a brave new world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781786070692
Publisher:	Oneworld Publications
Publication date:	03/02/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Karen Bartlett is a journalist, film-maker and Sunday Times bestselling author whose writing has appeared in the Sunday Times, The Times, Guardian, Newsweek, New Statesman and Wired. Previously she worked with Nelson Mandela and United World Colleges, the Fabian Society, and as director of the human rights campaign group Charter88. She lives in Barnet, London.
Karen Bartlett is a journalist, film-maker and Sunday Times bestselling author whose writing has appeared in the Sunday Times, The Times, Guardian, Newsweek, New Statesman and Wired. Previously she worked with Nelson Mandela and United World Colleges, the Fabian Society, and as director of the human rights campaign group Charter88. She lives in Barnet, London.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1 The Hippies Who Beat Smallpox 7

A country doctor 13

A post-war dream 20

A medical missionary 23

Hard times 27

The last man to suffer from smallpox 32

A message to the future 34

2 The Crippler 37

A short and simple virus 42

The March of Dimes 46

Salk vs Sabin 57

3 Polio's Last Stand 75

'Rotary - go home…' 75

'Nothing is beyond you, even in India …' 82

'Like an arranged marriage, where the love comes later' 93

'Pakistan: polio central' 97

4 Bill Gates and the Final One Per Cent 109

By camel, truck or canoe 110

Victory in Nigeria 115

'Deep in the weeds' with Bill Gates 127

The vaccine 137

The clock is ticking 142

5 The Prophet 145

The birth of microbiology 146

'The most magnificent failure in public health' 153

'The General Patton of entomology' 160

'Suggestion to redefine eradication is not acceptable…' 167

6 The Mosquito House 171

The 'E' word again 174

Conquering 'the little brute' 175

'Let us spray' 179

A new beginning 184

The elusive vaccine 190

The first public health insecticide 194

Malaria eradication 2.0 196

'Rolling it back' 202

7 Liberty or Death - The Anti-vaccination Movement 207

'A poisoned lancet?' 212

The contested origins of HIV 217

Our bodies - our inoculations? 220

The failure of reason 230

8 Ebola: An avoidable Crisis 235

'It's a river - in Africa' 239

'An outbreak like no other' 243

9 The Legacy 253

Diseases of the poor 254

Killing the goose that lays the golden egg 258

Immunization for all? 261

The kid at the end of the road 263

The lady-in-waiting 266

Conclusion 271

Acknowledgements 275

Notes 277

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A fantastic story about the oddballs and outcasts, hippies and billionaires who have saved millions and millions of lives. As exciting as a thriller and with a happy ending that gives us hope for humankind."


—Johan Norberg, author of Progress

Editorial Reviews

02/27/2017
In this timely but bland account, British journalist and filmmaker Bartlett (Dusty: Lost Icon) chronicles several international campaigns to eradicate contagious diseases such as polio, smallpox, and Ebola. Focusing on the long, expensive, contentious fight against polio, Bartlett discusses the politics of immunization as well as the cultural and religious barriers to locating and immunizing the unvaccinated 2% of the world’s children. She tries to impart a sense of the hardships health professionals face, but her lackluster writing fails to bring her heroic subjects to life. Disease eradication, she argues, was a 20th-century dream. Now, religious intolerance and factionalism have put that dream at risk. While smallpox was eradicated in 1979, all other campaigns have “ended in failure.” Despite sustained efforts by international health organizations and wealthy philanthropists, world disease continues to plague the young and the impoverished; Bartlett points out that although tropical diseases account for 90% of the global disease burden, they receive about 10% of the research funds. She also covers battles to eliminate malaria, yellow fever, and Guinea worm, though they’re not considered contagious diseases. Readers who follow world news will find little here that’s surprising or heartening. Agent: Gaia Banks, Sheil Land Associates (U.K.). (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

‘...describes the heroic efforts, the thrill of success, the challenges and the tragedy of failure...[it] kept me turning the pages until late in the night.’

Nicholas Grassly

‘This book is so engaging that I read it in one sitting...I recommend it in the highest possible terms.’

W. Ian Lipkin

‘A deft combination of history and palatable scientific reportage.’

Geographical

‘A fantastic story about the oddballs and outcasts, hippies and billionaires who have saved millions and millions of lives. As exciting as a thriller and with a happy ending that gives us hope for humankind.’

Johan Norberg

‘Well-researched and accessible... Her writing is clear yet nuanced, and offers compassion, a broad respect for history, and the skills of a strong storyteller.’

CHOICE Magazine

‘A fantastic story about the oddballs and outcasts, hippies and billionaires who have saved millions and millions of lives. As exciting as a thriller and with a happy ending that gives us hope for humankind.’

author of Progress Johan Norberg

"Timely."


—Publishers Weekly

"Bartlett makes it abundantly clear that research to reduce the impact of infectious disease is progressing but that politics, budgetary constraints, competing priorities, and ego clashes are serious impediments.”


—Kirkus Reviews

"Smallpox, polio, measles, and malaria are a few of the diseases that cause devastation in many countries. Smallpox has been eradicated, but ridding the world of other viruses is not easy. Bartlett (with Eva Schloss, After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival), a London-based journalist and former director of human rights group Charter88, takes readers on an epidemiological tour to see how public health professionals fight disease around the globe. From Edward Jenner's discovery that inoculating people with cowpox would prevent smallpox to the development of rival polio vaccines by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to efforts to contain outbreaks of Ebola and Zika, she looks at the obstacles posed by a lack of resources, government bureaucracies, and the difficulties of reaching isolated rural areas. She also covers the contributions of nonprofits and organizations such as the Gates Foundation. Anyone interested in public health and its interface with politics will find both hope and frustration here. VERDICT A fascinating look at epidemiology and the challenges that public health workers face."


—Library Journal

"Bartlett’s The Health of Nations is a well-researched and accessible book. Her writing is clear yet nuanced, and offers compassion, a broad respect for history, and the skills of a strong storyteller. The story of polio ties together chapters on attempts to control or eradicate various infectious diseases, and Bartlett, a journalist, film-maker, and author, argues that the infrastructure developed by anti-polio campaigns is invaluable in controlling other infectious diseases. Quotes from infectious disease leaders, whom she has interviewed and researched, add to the interwoven stories. Several concerns and questions link the chapters together. Should the focus be on a single virus or on interventions at broader environmental levels? How can environmental costs be anticipated and weighed? How should local control be balanced with the expertise and efficiency of international public and private organizations? How has the balance between individual liberties and the public’s health evolved over the centuries? The author does not offer simple solutions, but is optimistic about efforts of the Gates Foundation’s polio legacy transition planning, and support from unlikely partners.

Recommended. All Readers."

—CHOICE Magazine

From the Publisher

03/01/2017
Smallpox, polio, measles, and malaria are a few of the diseases that cause devastation in many countries. Smallpox has been eradicated, but ridding the world of other viruses is not easy. Bartlett (with Eva Schloss, After Auschwitz: A Story of Heartbreak and Survival), a London-based journalist and former director of human rights group Charter88, takes readers on an epidemiological tour to see how public health professionals fight disease around the globe. From Edward Jenner's discovery that inoculating people with cowpox would prevent smallpox to the development of rival polio vaccines by Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin to efforts to contain outbreaks of Ebola and Zika, she looks at the obstacles posed by a lack of resources, government bureaucracies, and the difficulties of reaching isolated rural areas. She also covers the contributions of nonprofits and organizations such as the Gates Foundation. Anyone interested in public health and its interface with politics will find both hope and frustration here. VERDICT A fascinating look at epidemiology and the challenges that public health workers face.--Barbara Bibel, formerly Oakland P.L.

Library Journal

2017-02-19
Will the world ever be rid of infectious disease?London-based journalist, filmmaker, and author Bartlett (Dusty: An Intimate Portrait of a Musical Legend, 2014, etc.) reviews attempts to conquer infections from the days of Edward Jenner and the advent of the germ theory of disease to current efforts to eradicate polio. The book's structure is complicated and not chronological. The author begins with smallpox, explaining that the strategy leading to eradication called for "surveillance and containment." Rather than massive vaccinations of populations, the idea was to identify a case and then vaccinate all the persons who had been in contact with the patient. She follows with a detailed account of the development of the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines and the current global effort at eradication, often stalled due to war, falsehoods, and politics. Sadly, in the film Zero Dark Thirty, the Pakistani doctor who collected blood samples for DNA to verify Osama bin Laden's location for the CIA was wrongly identified as a polio vaccinator. That led to a Taliban ban on vaccination and the subsequent murders of polio vaccine volunteers. Bartlett also discusses the role of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in the polio campaign and controversies in the global health community about how priorities should be set. Then she returns to history with a minireview of immunology science followed by chronicles of the wins and losses over the years in the battles against a variety of diseases. Bartlett also reviews in detail the long history of anti-vaccination campaigns, currently on the rise in America. The narrative can sometimes overwhelm with names, dates, places, bureaucratic agencies, and acronyms. Some individuals and programs are highly efficient and effective; some are hopelessly venal and corrupt. Still others, like the World Health Organization, she writes, are simply understaffed and underfunded. Bartlett makes it abundantly clear that research to reduce the impact of infectious disease is progressing but that politics, budgetary constraints, competing priorities, and ego clashes are serious impediments.

Kirkus Reviews