Tuberculosis - The Singapore Experience, 1867-2018: Disease, Society and the State

Description

Through a rich account of tuberculosis in Singapore from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, this book charts the relationship between disease, society and the state, outlining the struggles of colonial and post-colonial governments to cope with widespread disease and to establish effective public health programmes and institutions. Beginning in the nineteenth century when British colonial administrators viewed tuberculosis as a racial problem linked to the poverty, housing and insanitary habits of the Chinese working class, the book goes on to examine the ambitious medical and urban improvement initiatives of the returning British colonial government after the Second World War. It then considers the continuation and growth of these schemes in the post-colonial period and explores the most recent developments which include combating the resurgence of TB and the rise of antimicrobial resistance. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction A long history of tuberculosis Reflexive upon success Social history: patients and SATA The shape of the book Notes Chapter 1: The pauper hospital The pauper problem Tuberculosis at the pauper hospital The disease in the community At century’s end Notes Chapter 2: Disease of town-dwelling Chinese Tuberculosis and the shophouse Simpson and the sanitary state of Singapore Simpson redux: The 1918 Housing Commission The 1923 Tuberculosis Committee Notes Chapter 3: Houses and races of the colony Origins of public housing: the Singapore Improvement Trust Constructing the population Chinese immunity and resistance Fear of infection and stigma Notes Chapter 4: Struggle for a post-war policy The war as a catalyst The dreaded killer A medical plan sans tuberculosis The tuberculosis policy Notes Chapter 5: The Tuberculosis Control Unit Towards a centralised programme Converting TTSH into a sanatorium Urban planning for the ‘cubicle city’ Notes Chapter 6: The action programme ‘TB is on the way out’ Rehousing the population Clinical trials and transnational connections A reflexive state in the 1970s Disease of the elderly Notes Chapter 7: Laboratory of citizenship Treatment in the community Treatment allowances and home visits Screening the nation Stigma and spitting A further STEP Notes Chapter 8: Newborns and children of the nation School X-rays, checks and contact tracing BCG vaccination, reflection and reform Feeding the child Notes Chapter 9: SATA: The community against TB Laymen and experts The service provider Other battlefronts South winds Notes Conclusion Notes Bibliography Archival sources Britain Singapore Published sources Oral history interviews by Oral History Centre, National Archives of Singapore Oral history interviews by Kah Seng Loh Newspapers Books and articles Index