Health in an Emergency: A History of the Battles Against Epidemics and COVID-19

Abstract

Marcos Cueto is, without a doubt, the father of the social history of health in Peru. His pioneering work on epidemics and science published in international and national journals in the 1990s opened a subspecialty, the "social history of health," which was not practiced in Peruvian universities, which at that time focused on teaching political and economic history. Although works on the history of science and the history of medicine have existed in Peru for over a century, these more traditional studies began with a biomedical approach to health and focused on the major advances in Western medicine or the lives of the most renowned physicians. Cueto's groundbreaking work opened our eyes to the fact that health is not just a history of viruses and doctors, but must incorporate broader political and ideological contexts, living conditions, patient perceptions, religious beliefs, non-Western worldviews, international relations, among others. In these more than thirty years since the appearance of his doctoral thesis, published in Peru as Scientific Excellence in the Periphery: Scientific Activities and Biomedical Research in Peru, 1890-1950 (Lima: Grade, 1989), Cueto has published dozens of articles and books on the history of Peruvian, Latin American and global health.