Medical embargoes meant some Algerians died for lack of treatment

Evidence

We have noted that in the very first months of the struggle, the French authorities decided to put an embargo on antibiotics, ether, alcohol, anti-tetanus vaccine. The Algerian who wished to obtain any of these medications was required to give the pharmacist detailed information as to his identity and that of the patient. Just when the Algerian people decided no longer to wait for others to treat them, colonialism prohibited the sale of medications and surgical instruments. Just when the Algerian was set to live and take care of himself, the occupying power doomed him to a horrible agony. Numerous families had to stand by powerless, their hearts full of rancor, and watch the atrocious death by tetanus of wounded moudjahidines who had taken refuge in their houses. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 447 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

For dozens of years, despite the doctor’s exhortations, the Algerian shied away from hospitalization. Even though the specialist might insist that any hesitation would seriously endanger the patient’s life, the patient would hang back and refuse to be taken to the hospital. It would always be at the last moment, when hardly any hope remained, that consent was given. Even then, the man who made the decision would make it in opposition to the group; and as the case would be a desperate one, as the decision had been too long delayed, the patient would usually die. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 405 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The sudden deaths of Algerians in hospitals, a common occurrence in any establishment caring for the sick and the injured, are interpreted as the effects of a murderous and deliberate decision, as the result of criminal maneuvers on the part of the European doctor. The Algerian’s refusal to be hospitalized is always more or less related to that lingering doubt as to the colonial doctor’s essential humanity. It needs to be said, too, although it is not the rule, that in certain hospital services experimentation on living patients is practiced to an extent that cannot be considered negligible. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 404 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Military doctors let wounded Algerian soldiers die to avoid feeding them in prison; Algerians combined modern and traditional medicine for political and psychological reasons; Algerian refusal of hospital care delayed treatment until death was nearly certain. — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 405 (+4 more)

Related

• Colonial authorities embargoed medical supplies to deny Algerians self-treatment during the revolution (similarity 0.91)
• Algerian refusal of hospital care delayed treatment until death was nearly certain. (similarity 0.90)
• Algerian deaths in hospitals were read as deliberate European murder. (similarity 0.90)
• Algerians refused hospitalization until death was nearly certain (similarity 0.89)
• Algerians combined modern and traditional medicine for political and psychological reasons (similarity 0.86)
• French authorities weaponized the medical supply chain against the revolution (similarity 0.86)
• Algerians accepted French hospital treatment only when Algerian doctors approved it (similarity 0.85)
• French authorities compelled doctors to report wounded Algerians under legal penalty. (similarity 0.84)
• Regrouped Algerians deteriorated physiologically to the point that medication stopped working. (similarity 0.83)
• Algerians rejected colonial medicine not from ignorance but as resistance (similarity 0.82)
• Colonial doctors ended up treating Algerian patients like animals (similarity 0.81)
• Algerian willingness to use French hospitals changed when orders came from maquis doctors (similarity 0.80)
• Colonized populations reject imperial medicine not from ignorance but as political resistance. (similarity 0.80)
• Colonial law compelled doctors to surveil wounded Algerians under legal penalty (similarity 0.79)
• Algerian doctors were reintegrated into the people when they joined the revolution (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Colonial authorities embargoed medical supplies to deny Algerians self-treatment during the revolution #corroborates (0.85) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 447
• Algerian refusal of hospital care delayed treatment until death was nearly certain. #corroborates (0.80) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 405
• Algerian deaths in hospitals were read as deliberate European murder. #expands (0.55) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 404
• Regrouped Algerians deteriorated physiologically to the point that medication stopped working. #complicates (0.30) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 100