Medicine

Implementing a global health programme

Smallpox and Nepal

by Susan Heydon

Description

Worldwide eradication of the devastating viral disease of smallpox was devised as a distant global policy, but success depended on implementing a global vaccination programme within nation states. How this was achieved remains relevant and topical for responding to today's global communicable disease challenges. The small and poor Himalayan kingdom of Nepal faced enormous geographical and infrastructure challenges if it was going to succeed in a nationwide vaccination programme. This book acknowledges the key role of the WHO but disrupts the top-down, centre-led standard narrative. Against a background of widespread internal political and social change, Nepal's programme was expanded, effectively decentralised and a vaccination strategy introduced that aligned with people's beliefs. Few foreign personnel were involved.

More Information

Rights Information

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo [DRC], Congo, Republic of the, Costa Rica, Ivory Coast, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Djibouti, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Hongkong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, China, Macedonia [FYROM], Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Reunion, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, Cyprus, Palestine, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Dominican Republic, Myanmar, Monaco

Reviews

Even the leader of the WHO-led global smallpox programme acknowledged the exceptionalism of Nepal's success. Implementing a global health programme: smallpox and Nepal is about why when faced with overwhelming environmental and infrastructural challenges the smallpox programme succeeded in Nepal. Such problems are usually offered as explanations for failure. Why something worked is unusual. The Himalayan region is a novel area for exploration of a global programme. Project leaders in Nepal decentralised the programme's structure, not just on paper but in practice to achieve timely and effective response. The WHO worked with governments of nation states. Nowhere else in the official history in the conclusions drawn from different national programmes is such a decentralised strategy referred to as a reason for success. It is also absent from the wider literature. The book tells multiple and different stories from the local to the global and involves individual, community, state, extra-state, and foreign actors. The devastating disease of smallpox was common in Nepal in the 1960s and the book places people's experiences at the forefront. These influenced ideas and behaviour, including vaccination. Mass vaccination remained important throughout Nepal's smallpox programme but after 1971 was a time-limited annual campaign administered in line with Nepali people's longstanding preference for it being given in winter. Although success with smallpox was more than forty years ago, implementing communicable disease health programmes with their many challenges remains highly topical and relevant today.

Author Biography

Susan Heydon is a Senior Lecturer in Social Pharmacy at the University of Otago.

Trusted Partner
Manchester University Press

Manchester University Press

Manchester University Press is a leading UK publisher known for excellent research in the humanities and social sciences.

View all titles

Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher Manchester University Press
  • Publication Date February 2025
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9781526176660 / 1526176661
  • Publication Country or regionUnited Kingdom
  • FormatPrint PDF
  • Pages304
  • ReadershipGeneral/trade; College/higher education; Professional and scholarly
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions216 X 138 mm
  • Biblio NotesDerived from Proprietary 5883
  • SeriesSocial Histories of Medicine
  • Reference Code15975

Subscribe to our

newsletter