Public health policies continue to play important roles in national and international health reforms. However, the influence and legacies of the public health eras during which such policies are formulated remain largely underappreciated. The limited appreciation of this relationship may hinder consistent adoption of public health policies by nation-states, and encumber disinvestment from ineffective or anachronistic policies. This article reviews seven public health eras and highlights how each era has influenced international policy formulation for leprosy control—“the fertile soil for policy learning”. The author reiterates the role of health leadership and health activism in facilitating consistency in international health policy formulation and implementation for leprosy control.
References
[1]
Lasswell, H.D.; Kaplan, A. Power and Society; Yale University Press: New Haven, CT, USA, 1950; p. 71.
[2]
International AIDS Society (IAS). Banning Entry of People Living with HIV/AIDS. IAS Policy Paper; IAS: Geneva, Switzerland, 2007.
[3]
Lubinski, C.; Aberg, J.; Bardeguez, A.D.; Elion, R.; Emmanuel, P.; Kuritzkes, D.; Saag, M.; Squires, K.E.; Weddle, A.; Rainey, J.; et al. HIV policy: The path forward—A joint position paper of the HIV Medicine Association of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American College of Physicians. Clinic. Infect. Dis. 2009, 48, 1335–1344.
[4]
Mintzberg, H. Patterns in strategy formation. Manage. Sci. 1978, 24, 934–948.
[5]
Fee, E.; Brown, T.M. The Public Health Act of 1848. Bull. World Health Organisation 2005, 83, 866–867.
[6]
Rockefeller Foundation. Welch-Rose report on schools of public health. Available online: http://www.deltaomega.org/WelchRose.pdf (accessed on 15 July 2011).
[7]
Institute of Medicine. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century; National Academies of Science Press: Washington, DC, USA, 2002.
[8]
Gensini, G.F.; Yacoub, M.H.; Conti, A.A. The concept of quarantine in history: From plague to SARS. J. Infection 2004, 49, 257–261.
[9]
Alexander, J.W. The contributions of infection control to a century of surgical progress. Ann. Surg. 1985, 201, 423–428.
[10]
Jacob, J.T.; Franco-Paredes, C. The stigmatization of leprosy in India and its impact on future approaches to elimination and control. PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. 2008, 2, e113.
[11]
Obregon, D. The social construction of leprosy in Colombia, 1884–1939. Science, Technology & Society 1996, 1, 1–23.
[12]
Carcianiga, C.; Herselman, S. Leprosy and anthropological insights. S. Afr. J. Ethnol. 1999, 22, 157–172.
[13]
Melkote, S.R.; Krishnatray, P.; Krishnatray, S. Destigmatizing leprosy: Implications for communications theory and practice. In Emerging Perspectives in Health Communication: Meaning, Culture, and Power; Zoller, H.M., Dutta, M.J., Eds.; Routeledge: New York, NY, USA, 2008.
[14]
Burgess, P. Born of Those Years. An Autobiography; Henry Holt and Company: New York, NY, USA, 1951; pp. 273–274.
[15]
Brody, S.N. Can social marketing approaches change community attitudes towards leprosy? Leprosy Rev. 2006, 77, 89–98.
[16]
Parker, R. Miasma: Pollution and Purification by Early Greek Religion; Oxford University Press: New York, NY, USA, 1983.
[17]
Mawani, R. “The Island of the Unclean”: Race, Colonialism and “Chinese Leprosy” in British Columbia 1891–1924. Law, Social Justice & Global Development, 2003, 1. Available online: http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/global/03-1/mawani.html (accessed on 30 April 2011).
[18]
Gussgow, Z. Leprosy, Racism and Public Health: Social Policy and Chronic Disease Control; Westview Press: Boulder, CO, USA, 1989.
[19]
Hamlin, C.; Sheard, S. Revolutions in public health: 1848, and 1998? Brit. Med. J. 1998, 317, 587–591.
[20]
Kou, M. Do not repeat the error of Leprosy Prevention Law. J. Public Health Practice 1999, 63, 160–163.
[21]
Sato, H. Abolition of leprosy isolation policy in Japan: Policy termination through leadership. Policy Stud. J. 2002, 30, 29–46.
[22]
Plunkett, H.M. Twenty five years of preventive medicine. The Popular Sci. Mon. 1895, 302–305.
[23]
Cochrane, R.G. Biblical Leprosy: A Suggested Interpretation; Tyndale Press: Carol Stream, IL, USA, 1961. Available online: http://www.biblicalstudies.org.uk/article_leprosy_cochrane.html (accessed on 15 July 2011).
[24]
Stone, D. Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making; Norton: New York, NY, USA, 2002.
[25]
Noordeen, S.K. Chemoprophylaxis in leprosy. Leprosy in India 1969, 41, 247–254.
[26]
Moet, F.J.; Pahan, D.; Oskam, L.; Richardus, J.H. Effectiveness of single dose rifampicin in preventing leprosy in close contacts of patients with newly diagnosed leprosy: Cluster randomised controlled trial. Brit. Med. J. 2008, 336, 761–764.
[27]
Feenstra, S.; Nahar, Q.; Pahan, D.; Oskam, L.; Richardus, J.H. Acceptability of chemoprophylaxis for household contacts of leprosy patients in Bangladesh: A qualitative study. Leprosy Rev. 2011, 82, 178–187.
[28]
World Health Organisation. Primary Health Care. Report of the International Conference on Primary Health Care, Alma-Ata, USSR; World Health Organisation: Geneva, Switzerland, 1978.
[29]
World Health Organisation. Multidrug Therapy against Leprosy: Development and Implementation over the Past 25 Years; World Health Organisation: Geneva, Switzerland, 2004.
[30]
Raju, M.S.; Dongre, V.V. Integration of the leprosy programme into primary health care: A case study of perceptions of primary health care workers. Indian J. Leprosy 2003, 75, 243–258.
[31]
Mahler, H. The meanning of “health for All by the year 2000”. World Health Forum 1981, 2, 5–22.
[32]
Iyor, F.T. “Reverse integration” in leprosy: Lessons from Mkar, Nigeria. Asia Pacific Disabil. Rehabil. J. 2006, 17, 35–40.
[33]
Newell, K.W. Selective primary health care: The counter revolution. Soc. Sci. Med. 1988, 28, 903–906.
[34]
Wisner, B. Gobi versus PHC? Some dangers of selective primary health care. Soc. Sci. Med. 1988, 26, 963–969.
[35]
Saunderson, P. Leprosy Elimination: Not as straightforward as it seemed. Public Health Rep. 2008, 123, 213–216.
[36]
Loo, S. Health Promotion in Indonesia; WHO Regional Office in South East Asia: New Delhi, India, 2001.
[37]
Kindig, D.; Stoddart, G. What is population health? Am. J. Public Health 2003, 93, 380–383.
[38]
Mira, M.T.; Alcais, A.; Thuc, N.V.; Moraes, M.O.; Di Flumeri, C.; Thai, V.H.; Phuon, M.C.; Huong, N.T.; Ba, N.N.; Khoa, P.X.; et al. Susceptibility to leprosy is associated with PARK2 and PACRG. Nature 2004, 427, 636–640.
[39]
Cunha, S.S.; Alexander, N.; Barreto, M.L.; Pereira, E.S.; Dourado, I.; Maroja, M.F.; Ichihara, Y.; Brito, S.; Pereira, S.; Rodrigues, L.C. BCG revaccination does not protect against leprosy in the Brazilian amazon: A cluster randomised trial. PLoS Negl. Trop. Dis. 2008, 2, e167.
[40]
World Health Organization and International Anti-leprosy Associations. Technical Guide on Community-Based Rehabilitation and Leprosy; World Health Organisation: Geneva, Switzerland, 2007.
[41]
World Health Organisation. Enhanced Global Strategy for Further Reducing the Disease Burden due to Leprosy; World Health Organisation: New Delhi, India, 2009.
[42]
Frantz, J.E.; Sato, H. The fertile soil for policy learning. Policy Sci. 2005, 38, 159–176.
[43]
World Health Organisation. World health Report 2008: Primary Health Care, Now More Than Ever; World Health Organisation: Geneva, Switzerland, 2008.
[44]
National Center for Healthcare Leadership. Competency Model; NCHL: Chicago, IL, 2005.
[45]
Huang, J. Defining health activism: From MADD to mad activists. Yale J. Biol. Med. 2011, 84, 51–53.
[46]
Goldstein, S.; Usdin, S.; Scheepers, E.; Japhet, G. Communicating HIV and AIDS, what works? A report on the impact evaluation of Soul City's fourth series. J. Health Commun. 2005, 10, 465–483.
[47]
Alan, R.A.; Bell, S.E. Artworks, collective experience and claims for social justice: The case of women living with breast cancer. Sociol. Health Ill. 2007, 29, 366–390.
[48]
Awofeso, N. Stigma and socio-economic reintegration of leprosy sufferers in Nigeria. Acta Leprologica 1996, 10, 89–91.
[49]
Kindig, D.; Stoddart, G. What is population health? Amer. J. Public Health 2003, 193, 380–383.
