Mara?a: War and Disease in the Jungles of Colombia (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780226839349)

Delves into the relationship between war and disease, focusing on Colombian armed conflict and the skin disease known as cutaneous leishmaniasis.

Cutaneous leishmaniasis, transmitted by female sandflies, produces skin lesions of varying size and shape. In Colombia, the insect vector of the disease is native to the same forested environments that have served as the main stage for one of the longest and most violent wars in Latin American history. As a result, the populations most affected by leishmaniasis in Colombia are members of the state army and nonstate armed groups.

Lina Pinto-Garc?a explores how leishmaniasis and the armed conflict are inextricably connected and mutually reinforcing. Mara?a means "tangle" in Spanish but is also commonly used in Colombia to name the entangled greenery, braided lianas, and dense foliage that characterize the tropical forests where leishmaniasis transmission typically occurs. Pinto-Garc?a argues that leishmaniasis and the war are not merely linked but enmara?adas to each other through narratives, technologies, and practices produced by the state, medicine, biomedical research, and the armed conflict itself. All told, Mara?a is a passionate study of how war has shaped the production of scientific knowledge about leishmaniasis and access to its treatments in Colombia.

Author: Lina Pinto-Garc?a
ISBN-10: 0226839346
ISBN-13: 9780226839349
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Language: English
Published: 04/29/2025
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.00lbs