A TALE OF TWO GLOBAL HEALTH PROGRAMS: Smallpox Eradication's Lessons for the Antipolio Campaign in India

TY - JOUR

T1 - A TALE OF TWO GLOBAL HEALTH PROGRAMS

T2 - Smallpox Eradication's Lessons for the Antipolio Campaign in India

AU - Bhattacharya, Sanjoy

AU - Dasgupta, Rajib

PY - 2009/7/1

Y1 - 2009/7/1

N2 - India provided one of the most challenging chapters of the worldwide smallpox eradication program. The campaign was converted from a project in which a handful of officials tried to impose their ideas on a complex health bureaucracy to one in which its components were constantly adapted to the requirements of a variety of social, political, and economic contexts. This change, achieved mainly through the active participation of workers drawn from local communities in the 1970s, proved to be a momentous policy adaptation that contributed to certification of smallpox eradication in 1980. However, this lesson appears to have been largely forgotten by those currently managing the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. We hope to show ways in which contemporary efforts to eliminate polio worldwide might profitably draw on historical information, which can indicate meaningful ways in which institutional adaptability is likely to help counter the political and social challenges being encountered in India.

AB - India provided one of the most challenging chapters of the worldwide smallpox eradication program. The campaign was converted from a project in which a handful of officials tried to impose their ideas on a complex health bureaucracy to one in which its components were constantly adapted to the requirements of a variety of social, political, and economic contexts. This change, achieved mainly through the active participation of workers drawn from local communities in the 1970s, proved to be a momentous policy adaptation that contributed to certification of smallpox eradication in 1980. However, this lesson appears to have been largely forgotten by those currently managing the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. We hope to show ways in which contemporary efforts to eliminate polio worldwide might profitably draw on historical information, which can indicate meaningful ways in which institutional adaptability is likely to help counter the political and social challenges being encountered in India.

KW - Smallpox eradication

KW - Global health

KW - Polio eradication

KW - Rotary international

KW - Expanded Programme on Immunization

KW - Wild polio virus

KW - Variola

KW - Vaccinal side effects

KW - OPV

KW - IPV

KW - India

KW - World Health Organization

KW - GAVI

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67650756620&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.2105/AJPH.2008.135624

DO - 10.2105/AJPH.2008.135624

M3 - Article

SN - 0090-0036

VL - 99

SP - 1176

EP - 1184

JO - American journal of public health

JF - American journal of public health

IS - 7

ER -