“Jungle” Yellow Fever and Yellow Fever Vaccines: A History of Unequal Global Burdens of Disease
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Start Date
4-8-2021 5:00 PM
End Date
4-8-2021 6:00 PM
Disciplines
History
Subjects
Yellow fever -- Government policy -- History, Epidemics -- Social aspects, Health services accessibility, Public health -- Africa -- History, Public health -- Political aspects -- Africa -- History
Description
This is the keynote lecture given by Dr. Jennifer Tappan to introduce the 2021 Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference.
The early twentieth-century discovery of what became known as “jungle” yellow fever marked a turning point in the history of global health. A great deal of scientific research on “jungle” yellow fever was carried out in Africa and unfolded within a colonial framework that viewed Africa and Africans as “diseased.” The talk will examine the distinctions that were drawn between “jungle” yellow fever and what was known as “urban” yellow fever and how these distinctions were mapped onto different world regions. It will also explore how colonial constructions of yellow fever translated into distinct prevention strategies and differential access to yellow fever vaccines, leading to highly unequal global burdens of yellow fever disease. The history of yellow fever research and vaccination in Africa sheds light on global health disparities of particular importance in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the highly unequal global access to COVID-vaccines.
Jennifer Tappan is an Associate Professor of History at Portland State University. She received her doctorate from Columbia University and her research focuses on African history and the history of global health. She is the author of The Riddle of Malnutrition: The Long Arc of Biomedical and Public Health Interventions in Uganda and her work has also appeared in the International Journal of African Historical Studies and an edited volume: Global Health in Africa: Historical Perspectives on Disease Control. She is currently working on the history of yellow fever in Africa.
Rights
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/35291
“Jungle” Yellow Fever and Yellow Fever Vaccines: A History of Unequal Global Burdens of Disease
This is the keynote lecture given by Dr. Jennifer Tappan to introduce the 2021 Phi Alpha Theta Pacific Northwest Regional Conference.
The early twentieth-century discovery of what became known as “jungle” yellow fever marked a turning point in the history of global health. A great deal of scientific research on “jungle” yellow fever was carried out in Africa and unfolded within a colonial framework that viewed Africa and Africans as “diseased.” The talk will examine the distinctions that were drawn between “jungle” yellow fever and what was known as “urban” yellow fever and how these distinctions were mapped onto different world regions. It will also explore how colonial constructions of yellow fever translated into distinct prevention strategies and differential access to yellow fever vaccines, leading to highly unequal global burdens of yellow fever disease. The history of yellow fever research and vaccination in Africa sheds light on global health disparities of particular importance in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the highly unequal global access to COVID-vaccines.
Jennifer Tappan is an Associate Professor of History at Portland State University. She received her doctorate from Columbia University and her research focuses on African history and the history of global health. She is the author of The Riddle of Malnutrition: The Long Arc of Biomedical and Public Health Interventions in Uganda and her work has also appeared in the International Journal of African Historical Studies and an edited volume: Global Health in Africa: Historical Perspectives on Disease Control. She is currently working on the history of yellow fever in Africa.