![\"Epidemia-Febre-Amarela\"](\"http:\/\/www.revistahcsm.coc.fiocruz.br\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/Epidemia-Febre-Amarela.jpg\")
<\/a>The Conquest of Yellow Fever, painting by Robert Thom showing yellow fever commission members in Cuba.
image \u00a9 Collection of the University of Michigan Health System, Gift of Pfizer, Inc., UMHS.37. Downloaded from www.historyofvaccines.org<\/p><\/div>\n
In the nineteenth century Europe, one of the most \u00a0contested debates in medicine revolved around the theories of contagion and of miasmas. The same happened in early twenties in Brazil regarding to yellow fever. According to the miasmas theorists, certain diseases developed as they adapted to specific environmental conditions, such as \u00a0temperature and unhealthy living conditions –\u00a0lack of sanitation, drainage, drinking water and personal cleanliness.<\/p>\n
In contrast to this theory, the contagionists argued that diseases spread through contact with a sick person. They were in favor of isolating the individual in order to control the disease and prevent epidemics.<\/p>\n
A similar debate could be seen in S\u00e3o Paulo Press. This was the topic of the research\u00a0Theories about the propagation of yellow fever: the scientific debate in the S\u00e3o Paulo press between 1895 and 1903<\/a>, written by\u00a0Soraya L\u00f3dola and Edivaldo G\u00f3is Junior, of the University of Campinas (Unicamp). They did a documentary research\u00a0collecting articles of newspapers and journals published in S\u00e3o Paulo between\u00a01895 and 1903, a time that saw high indices of the disease in Brazil.<\/p>\n Most of the articles published in the mainstream press at the time were written by the physicians themselves.\u00a0They were the ones who provided the information and lit the fires of controversy surrounding the debates with regard to diseases. In this debate, \u00a0it was observed an influence of ideologies\u00a0and\u00a0intense struggles for power.<\/p>\n Even though the theory of miasmas lingered on regarding the transmission of yellow fever through water, in the context of debate with various differing theories of the propagation of yellow fever linked to bacteriology, the latter prevailed.<\/p>\n L\u00f3dola, Soraya and G\u00f3is Junior, Edivaldo.\u00a0Theories about the propagation of yellow fever: the scientific debate in the S\u00e3o Paulo press between 1895 and 1903, 1895-1903<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, Set 2015, vol.22, no.3, p.687-704. ISSN 0104-5970.<\/p>\n Read\u00a0the full issue of\u00a0HCSM (vol.22\u00a0no.3\u00a0Rio de Janeiro\u00a0jul.\/set.\u00a02015)<\/a>.<\/p>\n See articles about yellow fever already published in HCS – Manguinhos:<\/p>\n Alcal\u00e1 Ferr\u00e1ez, Carlos.\u00a0De miasmas a mosquitos:\u00a0el pensamiento m\u00e9dico sobre la fiebre amarilla en Yucat\u00e1n, 1890-1920<\/a>.\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, Mar 2012, vol.19, no.1, p.71-87. ISSN 0104-5970<\/p>\n M\u00f3nica Garc\u00eda, Claudia.\u00a0Las ‘fiebres del Magdalena’:medicina y sociedad en la construcci\u00f3n de una noci\u00f3n m\u00e9dica colombiana, 1859-1886<\/a>.\u00a0Hist. cienc. saude-Manguinhos<\/i>, Mar 2007, vol.14, no.1, p.63-89. ISSN 0104-5970<\/p>\n