The Kiss of Death

RA6

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4.C26B37 1998

614.5’33dc21           98-18279

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Notes

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1. This research is summarized in the following articles and books: concerning Aymara rituals (Bastien 1989), Kallawaya herbal curing (Bastien 1982, 1983a, 1983b), ethnophysiology (Bastien 1985), Kallawaya herbalists (Bastien 1987), cultural perceptions of neonatal tetanus and programming implications (Bastien 1988), integration of ethnomedicine and biomedicine (Bastien 1992), and training of community health workers (Bastien 1990).

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2. Some of these positions were coordinator with Project Concern for community health workers and biomedical personnel of the Department of Oruro, Bolivia, (Bastien 1987b, 1990a); educator with Project Concern for diarrhea control and oral rehydration therapy (Bastien 1987a: 81-84); researcher with Resources for Child Health concerning prevention of neonatal tetanus (Bastien 1988); anthropologist working with Bolivian radio schools (1990); and ethnologist advisor to USAID projects: Community and Child Health (1987a, 1991), Bolivian Forestation Project (1995), and Chagas Control Project, Bolivia (1991).

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3. The acronym in Spanish is SNS/CCH, Programa Piloto de Control de Chagas; in English it is SOH/CCH, Chagas Control Pilot Project.

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1. For the medical history of Chagas’ disease see Chagas 1909, 1911, 1921, 1922, 1988; Chagas Filho 1959, 1968, 1988, 1993; Kean 1977; and Lewinsohn 1979, 1981.

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2. “La vinchuca incommode beaucoup ceux qui voyagent de Mendoza a BuenosAyres… C’est un escarbot ou scarabee, dont le corps est ovale e tres-aplati, et qui devient gros comme un grain de raisin, du sang qu’il suce… Cet insect ne sort que de nuit; les individus ailes peuvent avoir cinq lignes de long, et volent; ce qui n’arrive pas aux petit.”

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3. Concerning the debate whether Darwin had Chagas’ disease see Browne 1995:280; Keynes 1988:315; Goldstein 1989:586-601; and Woodruff 1965.

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1. Castor oil is a fixed oil expressed from the seed of the croton plant, Croton tiglium. Although commonly used fifty years ago in biomedicine, Taber’s Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary (1985:400) says, “Action: Drastic cathartic, externally as a rubefacient. This chemical has no place in medicine and should not be used.”

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2. Biomedical ethics in Bolivia at the time treated lightly the fact that doctors used Indians as trial subjects. The most noted transgression was a La Paz oculist’s experiments on Aymara Indians, who were noted for their excellent vision, in the early development stages of radial kerometry. In other Latin American countries, prisoners have been experimentally infected with T. cruzi and treated with potential remedies (G. Stewart, interview, 1993).

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3. This name is purposely withheld for legal reasons. One of Bolivia’s most reputed naturalists, Jaime Zalles, claims that the patented formula from Regenerator has had millions of dollars in drug sales. I have been unable to verify this.

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4. As one example: “Fifth Case.- Margarita Vidaurre. First analysis from Laboratorio de Salud Publica on October 24, 1966. Complement Fixation: positive. Second analysis from Laboratorio de Salud Publica on July 12, 1970, negative.”

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