Nations must be defended: public health, enmity and immunity in Katherine Mayo’s Mother India

2021 ◽  
pp. medhum-2021-012247
Author(s):  
Sandhya Shetty
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
World War I ◽  
Political Liberalism ◽  
International Health ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
Theoretical Expression ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Indian Nationalism ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Liberal Imperialism

This essay explores repressed hostility and punitive fantasies in the discourse of international health, using Katherine Mayo’s Mother India (1927). Multiple tendencies in interwar thinking converge in Mayo’s book, making it a veritable archive of major, minor and emergent forces, including those shaping the phenomenon of ‘international health’ post-Versailles. Mother India provides a unique opportunity to explore how progressive principles of international public health tend to obscure a ‘minor’ and forgettable yet disturbing truth: the discourse on life and health can ‘safely’ harbour an alternative politics and poetics of enmity. Spotlighting the way international health interventions, centrally shaped by USA, operated across multiple levels of governance, the essay locates the significant detail of Mayo’s representation of India as ‘world-menace’. Propelled by the logic of enmity, her shaming portrait of a dysgenic Hindu India justifying emergency international intervention resonates with a strand of interwar conservatism given theoretical expression in the writings of Mayo’s contemporary, Carl Schmitt. Schmitt’s animosity towards political liberalism helps identify Mother India’s vision of imperial sovereignty as a curious antiliberal, American iteration of the logic of enmity in extra-European space and in the ‘humane’ domain of health. Biologising the discourse of juridical-political maturity at a time when Indian nationalism’s organised challenge to Empire could not be gainsaid, Mother India urges a re-imagination of the political field as a battlefield where ‘the enemy’, construed as a problem of health, will kill. Building a case for continued imperial domination in the name of global health and immunity, the book’s humiliating representation of colonial bodily habits, habitations and contagions aimed to undermine liberal imperialism, internationalism and Indian nationalism, all increasingly vocal after World War I.

scholarly journals The Serological Cross-Detection of Bat-Borne Hantaviruses: A Valid Strategy or Taking Chances?

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1188
Author(s):  
Renata Carvalho de Oliveira ◽  
Jorlan Fernandes ◽  
Elba Regina de Sampaio Lemos ◽  
Fernando de Paiva Conte ◽  
Rodrigo Nunes Rodrigues-da-Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
In Silico ◽  
Data Bank ◽  
Distinct Species ◽  
Geographic Range ◽  
Ab Initio Methods ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
B Cell Epitopes ◽  
Crystallographic Structures ◽  
A Minor

Bats are hosts of a range of viruses, and their great diversity and unique characteristics that distinguish them from all other mammals have been related to the maintenance, evolution, and dissemination of these pathogens. Recently, very divergent hantaviruses have been discovered in distinct species of bats worldwide, but their association with human disease remains unclear. Considering the low success rates of detecting hantavirus RNA in bat tissues and that to date no hantaviruses have been isolated from bat samples, immunodiagnostic tools could be very helpful to understand pathogenesis, epidemiology, and geographic range of bat-borne hantaviruses. In this sense, we aimed to identify in silico immunogenic B-cell epitopes present on bat-borne hantaviruses nucleoprotein (NP) and verify if they are conserved among them and other selected members of Mammantavirinae, using a combination of (the three most used) different prediction algorithms, ELLIPRO, Discotope 2.0, and PEPITO server. To support our data, we in silico modeled 3D structures of NPs from representative members of bat-borne hantaviruses, using comparative and ab initio methods due to the absence of crystallographic structures of studied proteins or similar models in the Protein Data Bank. Our analysis demonstrated the antigenic complexity of the bat-borne hantaviruses group, showing a low sequence conservation of epitopes among members of its own group and a minor conservation degree in comparison to Orthohantavirus, with a recognized importance to public health. Our data suggest that the use of recombinant rodent-borne hantavirus NPs to cross-detect antibodies against bat- or shrew-borne viruses could underestimate the real impact of this virus in nature.

Synergising International Public Health Law and International Disaster Law

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Pratik DIXIT
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
Health Law ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Public Health Law ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Response Strategies ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
International Public Health ◽  
Health Regulations

There is no time more opportune to review the workings of the International Health Regulations (IHR) than the present COVID-19 crisis. This article analyses the theoretical and practical aspects of international public health law (IPHL), particularly the IHR, to argue that it is woefully unprepared to protect human rights in times of a global public health crisis. To rectify this, the article argues that the IHR should design effective risk reduction and response strategies by incorporating concepts from international disaster law (IDL). Along similar lines, this article suggests that IDL also has a lot to learn from IPHL in terms of greater internationalisation and institutionalisation. Institutionalisation of IDL on par with IPHL will provide it with greater legitimacy, transparency and accountability. This article argues that greater cross-pollination of ideas between IDL and IPHL is necessary in order to make these disciplines more relevant for the future.

Triage Management, Survival, and the Law in the Age of Ebola

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederick M Burkle ◽  
Christopher M Burkle
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
International Health ◽  
Epidemiological Data ◽  
Population Based ◽  
World Health ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
Budget Cuts ◽  
The Public ◽  
Level 3 ◽  
Health Organization

AbstractLiberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea lack the public health infrastructure, economic stability, and overall governance to stem the spread of Ebola. Even with robust outside assistance, the epidemiological data have not improved. Vital resource management is haphazard and left to the discretion of individual Ebola treatment units. Only recently has the International Health Regulations (IHR) and World Health Organization (WHO) declared Ebola a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, making this crisis their fifth ongoing level 3 emergency. In particular, the WHO has been severely compromised by post-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) staffing, budget cuts, a weakened IHR treaty, and no unambiguous legal mandate. Population-based triage management under a central authority is indicated to control the transmission and ensure fair and decisive resource allocation across all triage categories. The shared responsibilities critical to global health solutions must be realized and the rightful attention, sustained resources, and properly placed legal authority be assured within the WHO, the IHR, and the vulnerable nations. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1-6)

scholarly journals Systematic Review of Human Poisoning and Toxic Exposures in Myanmar

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 3576
Author(s):  
Meghan A. Cook ◽  
Pardeep S. Jagpal ◽  
Khin Hnin Pwint ◽  
Lai Lai San ◽  
Saint Saint Kyaw Thein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Drugs Of Abuse ◽  
International Health ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Treatment Unit ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Public Health Burden ◽  
Toxic Exposures ◽  
Human Poisoning

The International Health Regulations (2005) promote national capacity in core institutions so that countries can better detect, respond to and recover from public health emergencies. In accordance with the ‘all hazards’ approach to public health risk, this systematic review examines poisoning and toxic exposures in Myanmar. A systematic literature search was undertaken to find articles pertaining to poisoning in Myanmar published between 1998 and 2020. A number of poisoning risks are identified in this review, including snakebites, heavy metals, drugs of abuse, agrochemicals and traditional medicine. Patterns of poisoning presented in the literature diverge from poisoning priorities reported in other lower-middle income countries in the region. The experience of professionals working in a Yangon-based poison treatment unit also indicate that frequently observed poisoning as a result of pharmaceuticals, methanol, and petroleum products was absent from the literature. Other notable gaps in the available research include assessments of the public health burden of poisoning through self-harm, household exposures to chemicals, paediatric risk and women’s occupational risk of poisoning. There is a limited amount of research available on poisoning outcomes and routes of exposure in Myanmar. Further investigation and research are warranted to provide a more complete assessment of poisoning risk and incidence.

Public Health Control Measures in Response to Global Pandemics and Drug Resistance

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (S2) ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Polly J. Price
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
International Health ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
World Health ◽  
Legal Authority ◽  
List Type ◽  
Resistant Disease ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
Health Organization

These teaching materials explore the specific powers of governments to implement control measures in response to communicable disease, in two different contexts:The first context concerns global pandemic diseases. Relevant legal authority includes international law, World Health Organization governance and the International Health Regulations, and regulatory authority of nations.The second context is centered on U.S. law and concerns control measures for drug-resistant disease, using tuberculosis as an example. In both contexts, international and domestic, the point is to understand legal authority to address public health emergencies.

Will Nurses’ Work Still be Valued after the COVID-19 Pandemic?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pasquot L ◽  
◽  
Giorgetta S ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infection Rate ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Public Places ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Infection ◽  
A Minor ◽  
Second Wave

Many are the aspects we should ponder on, after 17 months from the burst of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially as nurses. Due to the numerous cuts to the public health sector in the last decades in Italy, the sanitary emergency has been a great sacrifice for health professionals, as public health was completely unprepared to withstand it. The Italian government reacted to this lack of preparation with exceptionally urgent measures. Although, these measures were implemented long after the initial state of confusion and of inappropriate management, they brought about stability and led to a containment strategy for the spread of the virus across the nation [1]. The reduction in the number of COVID-19 diagnoses was mainly achieved through social distancing. At first this was only required to a small number of communities affected by high infection rates, but was eventually extended to the rest of the country from March 2020 [2]. The national lockdown during the first COVID-19 wave (from March to May 2020), was replaced by regional lockdowns in the second wave (from November 2020). As of now, regional lockdowns are integrated by the vaccine campaign and Green Pass enforcement. In November 2020 the Italian Prime Minister at the time, issued legislative measures to enforce regional lockdowns, limiting nonessential movements, cafes, restaurants and other public places opening hours. This legislation established to classify the national territory in different levels of restriction based on the infection rate: red zones - highest risk of infection, orange zones - medium high risk and yellow zones with a minor risk of infection. A later legislation introduced the white zone for territories with the lowest risk of infection (DPCM-14th January 2021). The infection rate has been important to establish a region’s tier status; however, it is not the defining parameter anymore. A new legislation from July 2021 (n.105 - 23rd July 2021), opted to classify a region’s tier status according to the hospital bed’s occupancy rate for COVID-19 patients in intensive care and other medical areas.

scholarly journals Systematic Review of Human Poisoning and Toxic Exposures in Myanmar

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meghan A Cook ◽  
Pardeep Jagpal ◽  
Khin Hnin Pwint ◽  
Lai Lai San ◽  
Saint Saint Kyaw Thein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Systematic Review ◽  
Drugs Of Abuse ◽  
International Health ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Treatment Unit ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Public Health Burden ◽  
Toxic Exposures ◽  
Human Poisoning

The International Health Regulations (2005) promote national capacity in core institutions so countries can better detect, respond to and recover from public health emergencies. In accordance with the ‘all hazards’ approach to public health risk, this systematic review examines poisoning and toxic exposures in Myanmar. A systematic literature search was undertaken to find articles pertaining to poisoning in Myanmar published between 1998 and 2020. A number of poisoning risks are identified in this review including snakebites, heavy metals, drugs of abuse, agro-chemicals and traditional medicine. Patterns of poisoning presented in the literature diverge from poisoning priorities reported in other lower-middle income countries in the region. The expe-rience of professionals working in a Yangon-based poison treatment unit indicates that frequently observed poisoning as a result of substances including pharmaceuticals, methanol, and petroleum products were absent from the literature. Other notable gaps in the available research include assessments of the public health burden of poisoning through self-harm, household exposures to chemicals, paediatric risk and women’s occupational risk of poisoning. There is a limited amount of research available on poisoning outcomes and routes of exposure in Myanmar. Further inves-tigation and research is warranted to provide a more complete assessment of poisoning risk and incidence.

scholarly journals Nepal COVID-19 Governmental Response

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omar S. Abdellatif ◽  
Ali Behbehani
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Medical Condition ◽  
International Health ◽  
Who Guidelines ◽  
Member States ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
The World ◽  
Travel Restrictions ◽  
Current Cycle ◽  
The Face

The International Health Regulations (2005) are legally binding on 196 States Parties, Including all WHO Member States. The IHR aims to keep the world informed about public health risks, through committing all signatories to cooperate together in combating any future “illness or medical condition, irrespective of origin or source, that presents or could present significant harm to humans.” Under IHR, countries agreed to strengthen their public health capacities and notify the WHO of any such illness in their populations. The WHO would be the centralized body for all countries facing a health threat, with the power to declare a “public health emergency of international concern,” issue recommendations, and work with countries to tackle a crisis. Although, with the sudden and rapid spread of COVID-19 in the world, many countries varied in implementing the WHO guidelines and health recommendations. While some countries followed the WHO guidelines, others imposed travel restrictions against the WHO’s recommendations. Some refused to share their data with the organization. Others banned the export of medical equipment, even in the face of global shortages. The UN Compliance Research group will focus during the current cycle on analyzing the compliance of the WHO member states to the organizations guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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