Book contents
- The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals
- Global Health Histories
- The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Making Medicines Modern, Making Medicines Colonial
- 2 Medicines in Colonial (Public) Health
- 3 The Mirage of Mass Distribution: State Quinine and Essential Medicines
- 4 The Many Lives of Medicines in the Private Market
- 5 Crimes and Misdemeanors: Transactions and Transgressions in the Therapeutic Market
- 6 Learning Effects: Lived Experiences, Pharmaceutical Publicity, and the Roots of Selective Demand
- 7 Medicines as Vectors of Modernization and Medicalization
- 8 Therapeutic Pluralism under Colonial Rule
- Conclusion: From Colonial Medicines to Postcolonial Health
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - The Mirage of Mass Distribution: State Quinine and Essential Medicines
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2019
- The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals
- Global Health Histories
- The Colonial Life of Pharmaceuticals
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 Making Medicines Modern, Making Medicines Colonial
- 2 Medicines in Colonial (Public) Health
- 3 The Mirage of Mass Distribution: State Quinine and Essential Medicines
- 4 The Many Lives of Medicines in the Private Market
- 5 Crimes and Misdemeanors: Transactions and Transgressions in the Therapeutic Market
- 6 Learning Effects: Lived Experiences, Pharmaceutical Publicity, and the Roots of Selective Demand
- 7 Medicines as Vectors of Modernization and Medicalization
- 8 Therapeutic Pluralism under Colonial Rule
- Conclusion: From Colonial Medicines to Postcolonial Health
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
While many medicines and issues related to their accessibility were met with prevailing indifference in colonial budgets and medical discourses, there were some exceptions to this trend. Some medicines do seem to have been invested in as tools that, if made sufficiently widely available, could have an impact on disease control and on the reach of colonial health care. This was the case for two initiatives that promised to “democratize,” or at least to broaden and ruralize access to modern medicines in Vietnam: the creation of the State Quinine Service in 1909 and the authorization of dépôts de médicaments (medicines outlets) in 1920, whose function was to stock and distribute médicaments essentiels (essential medicines) in areas devoid of pharmacies and public health care facilities.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Colonial Life of PharmaceuticalsMedicines and Modernity in Vietnam, pp. 83 - 115Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019