Autopsie d'un mal exotique à part : la variole et la vaccine en Indochine française (1860-1939)

Abstract

From the conquest of Conchinchina, the jennerian vaccination was significant of the main Western colonial objectives. It was symbolic of a public health policy. By offering it this wide political and medical mission, the French metropolis had forgotten several parameters such as climate or traditional medical practices which were representative of a tropical and asiatic area. Actually, French doctors never considered small pox as a tropical disease. In a book dedicated to this affectation, Dr Mougeot pointed the Indochinese specific context out ; he also insisted on the numerous difficulties the mass-vaccination encountered. Nobody followed him. For sure these vaccination campains were a prelude to a complete sanitary policy. They also increased the Western practice famé. But the jennerian process has never been employed in Indochina as far as it could. Above ail, this prophylactic method suffered from a lack of adaptability to the peninsula diversity.