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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

George Joseph, Yale University, P. O. Box 200779, New Haven, CT 06520, 203.675.3595, george.joseph@yale.edu

The history of the social, cultural, and medical attitudes toward the sufferers of Hansen's Disease deeply illustrates the evolution of public health as a human rights issue. The American experiences with Hansen's Disease between 1875 and 1925 in Massachusetts, Louisiana, Hawaii, the Philippines, and elsewhere were emblematic of the social and medical attitudes toward sufferers, their rights as individuals, and the emergent place of individual civil liberties in matters of community health. This paper uses the historical case of Hansen's Disease to explore the historical relationship between disease and human rights, between the rights of the individual and those of the community, and between social attitudes and public health policy. Public health officials recognized that segregating patients was medically unnecessary, but they relented to public pressure to act and to public perceptions about the dangers posed by the disease. The story demonstrates the power that the popular and the medical perceptions of a disease continued to exert in the development of public health policy at a time when physicians and public health officials were appealing to the authority of laboratory science as the arbitrator for public health practice. This element of the narrative considers issues of race, gender, and ethnicity in the social and medical construction of the disease. Disease control efforts also reflects the explicit relationship that must exist between the political culture and the public health community in the formation and the implementation of any public health undertaking.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Describe the history of the U.S. experience with Hansen's Disease;
• Articulate the underlying ethical and legal issues concerning the treatment and isolation of disease sufferers;
• Apply the historical example of Hansen's Disease to issues raised by infectious diseases in contemporary public health.

Keywords: History, Infectious Diseases

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No