No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States Since 1880

The important and timely conclusion reached in Allan M. Brandt's No Magic Bullet is that efforts to influence individual behavior as the primary means of controlling venereal disease historically have by and large been failures. When the campaign against venereal disease was a campaign to curtail promiscuity, appealing to the sanctity of the family, emphasizing moral values, and promoting programs designed to sublimate the sexual urge, there was negligible effect on the incidence of venereal infection. Even where prostitution was eliminated, there was little reduction in venereal infection because of the large numbers of amateurs in the field. Medical means such as providing easy access to prophylaxis and treatment, coupled with epidemiologic case-finding techniques, have been extremely successful. Witness the near disappearance of syphilis and gonorrhea in the 1950s through the momentum established during World War II after the advent of penicillin. No Magic Bullet traces the social attitudes and