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Chicago's War on Syphilis, 1937-40 - The Times, the "Trib," and the Clap Doctor (Hardcover, New)
Loot Price: R1,390
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Chicago's War on Syphilis, 1937-40 - The Times, the "Trib," and the Clap Doctor (Hardcover, New)
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Chicago's War on Syphilis, 1937-1940, offers valuable lessons to
those struggling to deal with today's AIDS epidemic. The Chicago
Tribune, one of the first newspapers to discuss the disease,
followed daily developments, including a new pre-marital testing
law, court-ordered screening of selected individuals, creation of
testing stations in city parks, and the steadily rising count of
those tested for it. The time was the late 1930s, however, and the
disease was syphilis. The Chicago Syphilis Control Program was
launched in 1937, an important part of the U.S. Public Health
Service's nationwide campaign to find, treat, and eradicate
syphilis. Though a large number of cases were identified - and many
treated - the program didn't reach its goals. Suzanne Poirier shows
how the effort was limited from the start because of the refusal of
the government, press, and public to directly confront the issues
behind the problem. Poirier's narrative is memorable for its vivid
scenes, colorful characters that include Chicago's "clap doctor",
Ben Reitman, and its account of the heated debate that surrounded
the effort. All are supported by careful research into official
documents of the Chicago Syphilis Control Program, Reitman's
personal papers, and the Tribune's coverage. What were the issues?
Using Chicago as a microcosm for the nation, Poirier shows that
they included mandatory testing, confidentiality, testing and
insurance, sex education in the schools, isolation and quarantine
of "non-compliant" infected people, interpretation and limitations
of V.D. tests, the disease's relation to class and race, collection
and interpretation of statistics, prevention of the disease by
mechanical or chemicalmeans versus sexual abstinence, and the role
of moral judgment in fighting venereal disease and treating its
victims. In her epilogue, Poirier discusses similarities between
current efforts against AIDS and the handling and politics of the
syphilis problem in the late 1930s. She also explores similarities
among the positions of people as diverse as Reitman, the writer and
AIDS activist Larry Kramer, and former U.S. surgeons general Thomas
Parran and C. Everett Koop.
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