The Story of an African American Woman in the Search for an Effective Leprosy Treatment
Keywords:
leprosy; feminist historiography; Hansen's diseaseAbstract
ABSTRACT
Introduction: While women's scientific achievements merit recognition, historiography has often overlooked their vital contributions to humanity's progress. This is exemplified in the case of Alice Augusta Ball (1892-1916), an African American chemist whose brief life yielded a breakthrough in the treatment of leprosy.
Objective: To examine the essential aspects of Alice Augusta Ball’s scientific contribution to developing an effective treatment for leprosy.
Methods: This study employed theoretical methods-historical-logical, analytical-synthetic, and systematization-to epistemically reconstruct the figure's contributions within their historical context. Empirical methods included documentary review to support historiographical analysis, supplemented by a focus group that provided evaluative criteria on the subject.
Results: The research contextualized Ball’s work by outlining relevant biographical details, the epidemiological characteristics of leprosy, and the limitations of pre-antibiotic treatments. An assessment of her contributions to pharmaceutical chemistry illuminated pathways for integrating her life and scientific work into biomedical education.
Conclusions: Despite a historical context marked by sociocultural hostility toward women in science, the significance of Alice Augusta Ball’s work in chemistry is clear. Her research provided a foundational, effective treatment for leprosy, underscoring both her scientific ingenuity and the need to restore such obscured figures to their rightful place in scientific history.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Evelyn González Betancourt, Yasser García Baró , Lisa Díaz Hernández
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