Fever epidemics and fever clinics
Institutionalising disease and cure in contemporary Kerala
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3864883 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mathew George (0000-0002-4235-1111, Tata Institute of Social Sciences) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 373-397 |
| Publication date | 2011-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contributions to Indian Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0069-9659 • E-ISSN: 0069-9667 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/006996671104500303 |
| OpenAlex | W1991351122 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
During the mid-1990s, the state of Kerala witnessed a wave of 'fever epidemics', which the government tackled by establishing fever clinics. Based on an ethnography of these clinics, this article examines how, from being a symptom of the body's defensive response, fever has itself become institutionalised as a disease. It argues that the institutionalisation of fever as a disease has occurred through two sets of practices: first, discursively at the societal level by interactions among health professionals, the media, organisations repre-senting various systems of medicine, and ordinary people; and second, curatively at the clinic while rendering fever care, including diagnosis and treatment. The article shows that, despite the discursive prevalence of a dominant system of allopathic medicine, the practices at the fever clinic are not consistently based on an allopathic understanding of physiology and pathology but rely on skilled trial-and-error which incorporates plural medical traditions. The article critically evaluates the effects of institutionalisation in terms of narrowing how fever is understood and how it may be treated
Alternative medicine · Disease · Ethnography · Family medicine · Government (linguistics · Infectious disease (medical specialty · Institutionalisation · Intestinal infectious diseases · Pathology · Plural · Psychiatry · Sociology · Typhoid fever · Cambodian History and Society · Medicine · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
The normal and the pathological
Medical Uncertainty Revisited
The Birth of the Clinic
Handbook of Social Studies in Health and Medicine
Allopathic medicine, profession, and capitalist ideology in India
Indigenous medicine and cultural hegemony
Voice of Illness and Voice of Medicine in Doctor-Patient Interaction
Disease in History
Of spineless babies and folic acid
Health Status of Kerala
State legitimacy and social suffering in a modern epidemic
Public Health and Urban Development
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |