Health, Medicine And Risk: The Need For A Sociological Approach

In May1994 Britain was gripped by a panic about a deadly. quick spreading gangrene known as necrotising fasciitis. The media, particularly the tabloid press, were full of horror stories about ‘the killer bug‘, linked with the streptococcus group A bacterium, with new victims being identified with each day that passed. Of the cases that had come to light by the end of the month 11 had died. While one expert, a professor of bacteriology, claimed that he had evidence the bacterium was becoming more virulent, thereby heightening public concern, another, the Director of the Public Health Laboratory Service, which monitors diseases and provides advice about the control of infection, tried to assuage this concern by stating that reported cases were within expected annual figures. The Service‘s response was also echoed by the Government which refused to make the infection a notifiable illness, requiring doctors to report it, as it felt that no new information would be gained.