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Podcast: NBN Book of the Day
Episode: Lina Pinto-GarcÃa, "Maraña: War and Disease in the Jungles of Colombia" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
Description: In Maraña: War and Disease in the Jungles of Colombia (University of Chicago Press, 2025), Lina Pinto-GarcÃa delves into the relationship between war and disease, focusing on Colombian armed conflict and the skin disease known as cutaneous leishmaniasis. Leishmaniasis is transmitted through the bite of female sandflies. The most common manifestation, cutaneous leishmaniasis, is neither deadly nor contagious: it affects the skin by producing lesions of varying size and shape. In Colombia, the insect vector of the disease is native to the same forested environments that have served as the main stage for one of the longest and most...