{"title":"The Unknown Infection, or ‘Rožňava Disease’ in Czechoslovakia in 1951","authors":"Kristýna Kaucká","doi":"10.1017/s0960777323000553","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the scientific and ideological impact of the 1951 tick-borne encephalitis epidemic in Rožňava (Czechoslovakia). Scientists in Rožňava discovered the possibility of transmission of the tick-borne encephalitis virus through non-pasteurised milk. The article focuses on both the outbreak in Rožňava, with its social and ideological implications, and the subsequent virological research, which became a means of prestige and symbolic power for Czechoslovak scientists within the domestic and international scientific community. The article shows that an epidemic can become a tool of power. The Rožňava epidemic, although now forgotten, helped establish the institutional background for virological research in Czechoslovakia and was at the origin of the still cutting-edge knowledge of tick-borne encephalitis.","PeriodicalId":46066,"journal":{"name":"Contemporary European History","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Contemporary European History","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/s0960777323000553","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HISTORY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article analyses the scientific and ideological impact of the 1951 tick-borne encephalitis epidemic in Rožňava (Czechoslovakia). Scientists in Rožňava discovered the possibility of transmission of the tick-borne encephalitis virus through non-pasteurised milk. The article focuses on both the outbreak in Rožňava, with its social and ideological implications, and the subsequent virological research, which became a means of prestige and symbolic power for Czechoslovak scientists within the domestic and international scientific community. The article shows that an epidemic can become a tool of power. The Rožňava epidemic, although now forgotten, helped establish the institutional background for virological research in Czechoslovakia and was at the origin of the still cutting-edge knowledge of tick-borne encephalitis.
期刊介绍:
Contemporary European History covers the history of Eastern and Western Europe, including the United Kingdom, from 1918 to the present. By combining a wide geographical compass with a relatively short time span, the journal achieves both range and depth in its coverage. It is open to all forms of historical inquiry - including cultural, economic, international, political and social approaches - and welcomes comparative analysis. One issue per year explores a broad theme under the guidance of a guest editor. The journal regularly features contributions from scholars outside the Anglophone community and acts as a channel of communication between European historians throughout the continent and beyond it.