Polio Across the Iron Curtain - Hungary's Cold War with an Epidemic

Hungary was one of the first countries to introduce a national oral vaccination campaign against polio, built on years of scientific collaboration between East and West. Dora Vargha uses a series of polio epidemics in communist Hungary to understand the response to a global public health emergency in the midst of the Cold War. This title is also available as Open Access.

List of contents

Introduction; 1. The power of polio; 2. Iron Curtain, iron lungs; 3. Unlikely allies; 4. Local failure in a global success; 5. Sabin saves the day; 6. After the end of polio; Conclusion: Eastern Europe in global health history.

About the author

Dóra Vargha is Lecturer in Medical Humanities at the University of Exeter. Her research has been awarded the J. Worth Estes Prize by the American Association for the History of Medicine, and the Young Scholar Book Prize by the International Committee for the History of Technology.

Summary

Hungary was one of the first countries to introduce a national oral vaccination campaign against polio, built on years of scientific collaboration between East and West. Dóra Vargha uses a series of polio epidemics in communist Hungary to understand the response to a global public health emergency in the midst of the Cold War. This title is also available as Open Access.

Product details

• Authors: Dóra Vargha
• Publisher: Cambridge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.12.2022
• EAN: 9781108431019
• ISBN: 978-1-108-43101-9
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 228 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 400 g
• Illustrations: 8 b/w illus., Raster,schwarz-weiss, Worked examples or Exercises
• Series: Global Health Histories
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > General, dictionaries; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Medicine > General; European History, MEDICAL / History, History of Medicine, Hungary, Public health & preventive medicine, c 1950 to c 1959, Public health and preventive medicine, The Cold War, C 1945 To C 1960, Cold wars and proxy conflicts