Subtitle: Living with Leprosy in Brazil
Author: Cassandra White
Subject: Anthropology , Latin American Studies
Paper ISBN 978-0-8135-4457-1
Cloth ISBN 978-0-8135-4456-4
Pages: 224 pages
Series: Studies in Medical Anthropology
Publication Date: February 2009

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"This carefully and thoroughly researched book presents a sensitive, insightful, and welcome contribution to the study of leprosy treatment and the treatment by society of those affected by the disease."
-Judith Justice, author of Policies, Plans, and People: Foreign Aid and Health Development

"An Uncertain Cure is a captivating and revealing ethnography of leprosy in Brazil that interrogates and clarifies the complex connections between illness and inequality in the context of public health. Intelligent and well-written, this account illuminates the ways in which a variety of actors-transnational institutions, government, medical personnel, and patients-struggle to make sense of and treat a disease long stigmatized in the human record."
-Donna Goldstein, author of Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown

"White poignantly illustrates how the stigma of leprosy in Brazil is more
virulent and contagious than the disease itself. The 'uncertain cure'
arises from a disjuncture between the social and clinical experiences of a
notorious yet treatable medical condition. This book explores the possible
reasons why this is the case."-Ron Barrett, Emory University Author of Aghor Medicine: Pollution, Death, and Healing in Northern India

In many cultures, leprosy elicits fear, stigma, and misunderstanding. Historically, people affected by leprosy were banished or isolated from the rest of society. Although the worldwide incidence of leprosy has declined markedly over the past quarter century with the advent of new multidrug therapies, developing nations are still encountering a high number of cases.

In An Uncertain Cure, Cassandra White goes deep into the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro to give a riveting account of the contemporary leprosy experience among poor and working class Brazilians. In this ethnographic treatment of leprosy sufferers, White exposes the web of historical, socioeconomic, religious, and political forces that complicate the path to wellness and perpetuate high rates of infection. Drawing on nearly ten years of research, White shows how anthropological research can contribute to more effective treatment of chronic infectious diseases around the world.

 
Relevant Links:

Health-related Stigma-Royal Tropical Institute

ICRAAS eForum

Cassandra White is an assistant professor of anthropology at Georgia State University.