Suchergebnisse

The epidemic of AIDS and herpes virus has called into question not only the ability of the medical profession to treat venereal disease but also its willingness to do so. No Magic Bullet, a perceptive analysis of the treatment of venereal diseases since the 1880s, places these questions in critical historical perspective. Beginning with Victorian hysteria about syphilis and continuing to contemporary treatment of AIDS, Allan Brandt recounts the various medical, military, and public health responses to venereal diseases that have arisen over the years. Brandt demonstrates that Americans' tendency to view sexually transmitted disease as both a punishment for sexual misconduct and an index of social decay has seriously impeded efforts to develop "magic bullets," the miracle drugs that would effectively halt the spread of infection. For this 35th Anniversary Edition, Brandt reflects on recent scholarship, the persistence of sexually transmitted diseases, and the trajectory of the HIV epidemic, as they have informed contemporary conceptions of biomedicine and global health.

Introduction: the Camel Man and me -- Culture -- Pro bono publico -- Tobacco as much as bullets -- Engineering consent -- Science -- More doctors smoke Camels -- The causal conundrum -- Constructing controversy -- Politics -- The surgeon general has determined -- Congress - the best filter yet -- Your cigarette is killing me -- Law -- Nicotine is the product -- Mr. Butts goes to Washington -- The trials of big tobacco -- Globalization -- Exporting an epidemic -- Epilogue: the crime of the century -- References -- Note on sources -- Acknowledgements -- Index

From Victorian anxieties about syphilis to the current hysteria over herpes and AIDS, the history of venereal disease in America forces us to examine social attitudes as well as purely medical concerns. In No Magic Bullet, Allan M. Brandt recounts the various medical, military, and public health responses that have arisen over the years--a broad spectrum that ranges from the incarceration of prostitutes during World War I to the establishment of required premarital blood tests. Brandt demostrates that Americans' concerns about venereal disease have centered around a set of social and cultural values related to sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and class. At the heart of our efforts to combat these infections, he argues, has been the tendency to view venereal disease as both a punishment for sexual misconduct and an index of social decay. This tension between medical and moral approaches has significantly impeded efforts to develop "magic bullets"--drugs that would rid us of the disease--as well as effective policies for controlling the infections' spread.

From the castigation and stigmatization of victims of AIDS to our celebration of diet, exercise and fitness, the moral categorization of health and disease reflects contemporary notions that disease results from moral failure and that health is the representation of moral triumph. Ranging across academic disciplines and historical time periods, the essays in Morality and Health offer a compelling assessment of the powerful role of moral systems for judging the complex questions of risk and responsibility for disease, the experience of illness, and social and cultural response

Frontmatter -- Acknowledgments -- Contents -- Introduction: Liberal States, Public Health, and the Tobacco Question -- 1. Children and Bystanders First: The Ethics and Politics of Tobacco Control in the United States -- 2. The Limits of Tolerance: Cigarettes, Politics, and Society in Japan -- 3. Rights and Public Health in the Balance: Tobacco Control in Canada -- 4. The Politics of Tobacco Control in Australia: International Template? -- 5. Militants,Manufacturers, and Governments: Postwar Smoking Policy in the United Kingdom -- 6. Liberté, Egalité, Fumée: Smoking and Tobacco Control in France -- 7. Between Paternalism and Voluntarism: Tobacco Consumption and Tobacco Control in Germany -- 8. Holy Smoke, No More? Tobacco Control in Denmark -- 9. Tobacco-Control Policy in the European Union -- 10. Difference and Diffusion: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on the Rise of Anti-Tobacco Policies -- 11. Tobacco Control in Comparative Perspective: Eight Nations in Search of an Explanation -- Conclusion: Lessons from the Comparative Study of Tobacco Control -- Notes -- Contributors -- Index