Hansen’s disease in the Amazon Region

December 2015

The article Hansen’s disease in the state of Amazonas: policy and institutional treatment of a disease discusses the historical aspects of the policies for controlling this disease from the second half of the nineteenth century until the dismantling of this model in 1978. The purpose of this study was to look at how these policies developed in the state of Amazonas.

The Belisario Penna leprosarium followed the model of hospital-colonies in Brazil and abroad, creating and adapting an architectural complex and bureaucratic system to care for patients, who were taken by boat to the isolated town of Paricatuba.

The history and policies related to Hansen’s disease in the state of Amazonas are analyzed through the following institutions: Umirisal, the Oswaldo Cruz Dispensary, the Paricatuba Leprosarium, the Antônio Aleixo Colony, and the Gustavo Capanema Preventorium.

According to this article, the history of leprosy in Amazonas can be divided into three phases: 1889-1907, 1908-1921, and 1922-1929.

The first phase, characterized by expressive migration to the state of Amazonas due to the rubber boom, is marked by two problems: there were no separate facilities for these patients, and towns in the countryside sent their sick to the state capital . This period was , and this had a significant impact on the growth of the disease.

The second period (1908-1921), was marked by the relative isolation of patients in the institution called Umirisal, created in the nineteenth century for the isolation of smallpox sufferers.

The third phase (1922-1928) was characterized by the spread of the disease, with new facilities needed. The period was marked by the start of the work of the Public Health and Rural Prophylaxis Service in Amazonas.