Ringworm and Irradiation

Ringworm and Irradiation: The Historical, Medical, and Legal Implications of the Forgotten Epidemic explores the history of the disease and the use of irradiation for the treatment of ringworm, an epidemic that was spread mainly among poor children in countries across the world in the first half of the 20th century. At its peak in the 1940 and 50s, children around the globe were treated with radiation therapy to prevent and eradicate ringworm of the scalp, a treatment that led years later to latent health risk to develop tumors, malignancies, thyroid cancer, brain tumors, and other health effects among the exposed population. The actions taken by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the US Food and Drug Administration to launch a nationwide campaign warning the public, and thus the medical community, about the late health effects of ionizing radiation received in childhood are evidenced in this compilation.

Shifra Shvarts, PhD, is a researcher of the history of medicine, and a Professor Emerita within the Faculty of Health Sciences at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. She received the 2003 Einhorn Prize for Achievements in Hebrew Medical Literature. Shvarts has written four books and co-authored dozens of volumes and over 140 papers and book chapters.
Professor Siegal Sadetzki, MD, MPH, is a physician with a specialty in public health and is a professor in Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine. She has published more than 170 peer reviewed articles and chapters in scientific books focusing mainly on cancer epidemiology and late effects of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation.

IntroductionShifra Shvarts and Siegal Sadetzki
Chapter 1 Ringworm of the scalp: the history of an ancient diseaseCiro Burstein
Chapter 2 Radiation epilation for ringworm: scientific and historical aspectsM. Raphael Pfeffer
Chapter 3 The ringworm children at the Hôpital Saint-Louis, Paris: from medical neglect to bio-social obsessionGérard Tilles
Chapter 4 Ringworm: a disease of schools and mass schooling in the UKAya Homei and Michael Worboys
Chapter 5 The JDC-Joint and OSE campaign for eradication of ringworm in the Jewish community in Eastern Europe and North AfricaShifra Shvarts, Pnina Romem, Itzhak Romem, Mordechai Shani
Chapter 6 The ringworm campaign in Serbia (Yugoslavia) in the 1950sShifra Shvarts, Goran Sevo, Marija Tasic, Mordechai Shani, Siegal Sadetzki
Chapter 7 The ringworm campaign in Portugal, 1940-1970: an historical review and present evaluation of X-ray-epilated individualsPaula Boaventura, Dina Pereira, Paula Soares, and José Teixeira-Gomes
Chapter 8 "Deadly Medicine": Michael Rees's Pandora's box and the campaign to warn the public of the late health effects of ionizing radiation in the United StatesItai Bavli and Shifra Shvarts
Chapter 9 The campaign to eradicate ringworm in Israel, 1925-1960Shifra Shvarts, Aya Bar Oz, Eli Shachar, Sari Levi, Sigal Samchi, Itai Bavli
Chapter 10 "Think before you act": Ringworm research in Israel, 1965-1995 Siegal Sadetzki
Chapter 11 The muted voices of the ringworm patients and their families, worldwideLiat Hoffer