Carlos Chagas in the Amazon, 1913

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April 2017

From October 1912 to April 1913, The Oswaldo Cruz Institute expedition to the Amazon river valley led by Carlos Chagas (1878-1934) was designed to map out the living conditions of the locals and the diseases they were affected by and put forward sanitation measures for the region. It was part of a broader effort to boost the rubber trade.

The article Carlos Chagas in the “war of the rivers:” the passage of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz commission up the Yaco river (Alto Purus, federal territory of Acre, 1913), published in our current issue (HCSM vol.25 no.1 jan./mar. 2018) reviews the 21 days expedition up the Yaco River, in Alto Purus, federal territory of Acre.

Expedition of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute to the state of Acre, Amazon Region, 1913. Fiocruz collection, Brasiliana fotográfica.

André Vasques Vital, postdoctoral researcher at Centro Universitário de Anápolis, Brazil, analyses the scientific report written by the commission focusing on the interactions that the expedition’s members had with the major players in the rubber industry and their resulting immersion in local and regional political conflicts.

See in hCSM’s blog:

Chagas disease and tropical medicine in Brazil, 1908-1909 – The disease was discovered in 1909 by the Brazilian sanitary physician Carlos Chagas at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute.

Brazilian researchers have successfully tested a vaccine for Chagas disease – Lab mice were observed after being infected with Chagas. While all animals that were not vaccinated died, 80% of those immunized survived.
Malaria, modernidad y desarrollo en la Argentina de la primera mitad del siglo XX – Una reseña de Marcos Cueto, editor científico de HCS-Manguinhos.
Two views on malaria – This research compares two views of malaria in the Amazon that coexisted side by side during the First Brazilian Republic (1889-1930).
Malaria epidemics in Europe after the First World War – This paper discusses the initiatives against Malaria epidemics over this period and identifies them as early stages of an international approach to the control of the disease.

 

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