“Public health” for whose benefit? Multiple discourses on malaria in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The malaria control policies and programs that evolved in Sri Lanka from 1990 onward can be seen in the light of divergent discourses in relation to this “tropical disease” on the part of the ruling elites and scientific community, nationalist leaders, leftist activists and the peasantry in general. The “public health” concerns in malaria control were mediated and to some extent undermined by the divergent interests represented by the ruling elites on the one hand and the peasantry on the other. This analysis helps to situate the origin and development of malaria control within a colonial context. It points to the need to decolonize malariology and malaria control policies and programs.