Slum Health

Urban slum dwellers—especially in emerging-economy countries—are often poor, live in squalor, and suffer unnecessarily from disease, disability, premature death, and reduced life expectancy. Yet living in a city can and should be healthy. Slum Health exposes how and why slums can be unhealthy; reveals that not all slums are equal in terms of the hazards and health issues faced by residents; and suggests how slum dwellers, scientists, and social movements can come together to make slum life safer, more just, and healthier. Editors Jason Corburn and Lee Riley argue that valuing both new biologic and “street” science—professional and lay knowledge—is crucial for improving the well-being of the millions of urban poor living in slums.

Jason Corburn is Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, jointly appointed in the Department of City and Regional Planning and the School of Public Health, and Director of the Center for Global Healthy Cities.

Lee Riley is Professor of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases and Chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley.

List of Illustrations List of Tables
Prelude: Memoirs of a Kenya Slum Dweller
Acknowledgments

Introduction 1 Jason Corburn and Lee Riley

Part One. Slum Health: Framing Research, Practice, and Policy

1. From the Cell to the Street: Coproducing Slum Health
Jason Corburn and Lee Riley
2. Slum Health: Research to Action
Alon Unger and Lee Riley
3. Frameworks for Slum Health Equity
Jason Corburn
4. Urban Poverty: An Urgent Public Health Issue
Susan Mercado, Kirsten Havemann, Mojgan Sami, and Hiroshi Ueda
5. Urban Informal Settlement Upgrading and Health Equity
Jason Corburn and Alice Sverdlik

Part Two. From The Cell to the Street: Slum Health in Brazil 101

6. Favela Health in Pau da Lima, Salvador, Brazil
Alon Unger, Albert Ko, and Guillermo Douglass-Jaime
7. Impact of Environment and Social Gradient on Leptospira Infection in Urban Slums
Renato B. Reis, Guilherme S. Ribeiro, Ridalva D. M. Felzemburgh, Francisco S. Santana, Sharif Mohr, Astrid X. T. O. Melendez, Adriano Queiroz, Andréia C. Santos, Romy R. Ravines, Wagner
S. Tassinari, Marília S. Carvalho, Mitermayer G. Reis, and Albert I. Ko
8. Factors Associated with Group A Streptococcus emm Type Diversification in a Large Urban Setting in Brazil: A Cross-Sectional Study
Sara Y. Tartof, Joice N. Reis, Aurelio N. Andrade, Regina T. Ramos, Mitermayer G. Reis, and Lee W. Riley

Part Three. urban upgrading and health in nairobi, kenya 149

9. Coproducing Slum Health in Nairobi, Kenya
Jason Corburn and Jack Makau
10. Sanitation and Women’s Health in Nairobi’s Slums
Jason Corburn and Irene Karanja
11. Microsavings and Well-Being in a Nairobi Informal Settlement
Jason Corburn, Jane Wairutu, Joseph Kimani, Benson Osumba, and Heena Shah

Part Four. Understanding Slum Health in Urban India

12. Health Disparities in Urban India
Siddharth Agarwal
13. Improved Health Outcomes in Urban Slums through Infrastructure Upgrading
Neel M. Butala, Michael J. Van Rooyen, and Ronak Bhailal Patel

Part Five. Knowledge Gaps and Future Considerations

14. Toward Slum Health Equity: Research, Action, and Training
Jason Corburn and Lee Riley 275

List of Contributors
Index 301