Landscapes of Disease: Malaria in Modern Greece
Katerina Gardikas
Series: CEU Press Studies in the History of Medicine
Hardcover: 220 pages
Publisher: Central European Univ Pr (June 1, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-13: 978-6155211980
Malaria has existed in Greece since prehistoric times. Its
prevalence fluctuated depending on climatic, socioeconomic and political
changes. The book focuses on the factors that contributed to the
spreading of the disease in the years between independent statehood in
1830 and the elimination of malaria in the 1970s.
By the nineteenth century, Greece was the
most malarious country in Europe and the one most heavily infected with
its lethal form, falciparum malaria. Owing to pressures on the
environment from economic development, agrarian colonization and
heightened mobility, the situation became so serious that malaria became
a routine part of everyday life for practically all Greek families,
further exacerbated by wars. The country’s highly fragmented geography
and its variable rainfall distribution created an environment that was
ideal for sustaining and spreading of diseases, which, in turn, affected
the tolerance of the population to malaria. In their struggle with
physical suffering and death, the Greeks developed a culture of avid
quinine consumption and were likewise eager to embrace the DDT spraying
campaign of the immediate post WW II years, which, overall, had a
positive demographic effect.
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