British Contributions to Medical Research and Education in Africa after the Second World War

Abstract

©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2001. First published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2001. All volumes are freely available online at: www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 3 June 1999. Introduction by Dr Maureen Malowany.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 3 June 1999. Introduction by Dr Maureen Malowany.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 3 June 1999. Introduction by Dr Maureen Malowany.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 3 June 1999. Introduction by Dr Maureen Malowany.Differences in health services, research and medical education between British East and West Africa over the period to 1980, including the effects of the transition to independent states, were discussed by witnesses with an extraordinary wealth of diverse talent and experience, directed by the chairman, Professor David Bradley. The increased postwar influence of the Medical Research Council in the tropics was described, aided by a seat on the Colonial Medical Research Committee and its successor body, the MRC-based Tropical Medicine Research Board. Research outcomes of programmes in non-infectious diseases and nutrition, along with the great vector-borne diseases, including sleeping sickness and malaria, and helminth eradication spread through the tropics and also influenced treatment in the UK. The importance of Africa for the postwar development of drug treatments for tropical diseases was underlined. Witnesses include: Dr Murray Baker, Sir Christopher Booth, Dr Christopher Draper, Professor Alan Fleming, Professor Herbert Gilles, Dr Len Goodwin, Professor Ralph Hendrickse, Dr Tom Hopwood, the late Professor Michael Hutt, Professor Sir Ian McGregor, Professor George Nelson, Professor Eldryd Parry, Professor Gerry Shaper, Professor John Waterlow, and Dr Roger Whitehead. Reynolds L A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2001) British contributions to medical research and education in Africa after the second world war, Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 10, London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL.The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL is funded by the Wellcome Trust, which is a registered charity, no. 210183