Public health and its contexts in northern Ghana, 1900-2000
This is a study of the long-term political economy of public health work in northern Ghana, and of the contingent application of medical knowledge under different political regimes. Covering the period from 1900 to 2000, the thesis asks how the north and its people's enduring peripherality - defined in various ways - shaped the evolution of public health institutions and conditioned the state's attention to particular diseases. It assesses key public health transitions across the century, including the creation of the north's Native Authority health system in the 1930s, the entrenchment of church authority for healthcare in the 1950s, and the government's gradual cession of medical oversight to international organisations from the late 1960s, a process which was partially reversed in the late 1990s. It examines specific disease control programmes against sleeping sickness, onchocerciasis, and guinea worm, for what they reveal about the social history of medical work on the margins of the state, and about the political contexts for population-level health interventions. Colonial-era tsetse control inadvertently contributed to the serious prevalence of onchocerciasis in the north at independence, and this high
Bannister, David
Public health and its contexts in northern Ghana, 1900-2000. This is a study of the long-term political economy of public health work in northern Ghana, and of the contingent application of medical knowledge under different political regimes. Covering the period from 1900 to 2000, the thesis asks how the north and its people's enduring peripherality - defined in various ways - shaped the evolution of public health institutions and conditioned the state's attention to particular diseases. It assesses key public health transitions across the century, including the creation of the north's Native Authority health system in the 1930s, the entrenchment of church authority for healthcare in the 1950s, and the government's gradual cession of medical oversight to international organisations from the late 1960s, a process which was partially reversed in the late 1990s. It examines specific disease control programmes against sleeping sickness, onchocerciasis, and guinea worm, for what they reveal about the social history of medical work on the margins of the state, and about the political contexts for population-level health interventions. Colonial-era tsetse control inadvertently contributed to the serious prevalence of onchocerciasis in the north at independence, and this high
public_health context northern ghana study long_term political_economy public_health work northern ghana contingent application medical_knowledge different political regime period ask north people endure define various_way shape evolution public_health institution condition state attention particular disease ass key public_health transition across century include creation north native authority health system church authority healthcare government gradual medical oversight international organisation process partially reverse examines specific disease control program sickness reveal social_history medical work margin state political_context population_level health intervention colonial era control inadvertently contribute serious prevalence north independence high