01320nas a2200145   4500000000100000008004100001260002700042653001900069653000900088653002000097653002400117100001500141245006000156520095800216       2024                            d  bTaylor & Francis Group10aDecolonisation10aYaws10aDisease control10aMass drug treatment1 aMeerwijk M00aYaws Medicine and Propaganda in Rural Java, 1911–19423 a<p>This chapter examines yaws control in rural Java under Dutch colonial rule. Salvarsan, a new drug developed around 1910, proved unexpectedly effective in treating this painful and disfiguring disease. In the Dutch East Indies, where yaws was prevalent, colonial health officials were excited about the possibilities of this new drug and developed mass treatment campaigns for rural populations. Salvarsan offered the Dutch an opportunity to not only demonstrate their commitment to a new colonial governing ethos but also to promote the larger complex of European scientific medicine to rural populations. To these ends, Dutch health officials developed a suite of “medical propaganda” materials and activities to demonstrate the “spectacular” impact that salvarsan had on yaws patients. In the process, these materials foregrounded a familiar but neglected disease and actively reimagined it as a leading endemic disease of rural Java.</p>