Simone Petraglia Kropf

The discovery of Trypanosoma cruzi and Chagas disease (1908-1909): tropical medicine in Brazil

This article analyzes the discovery of Chagas disease and the parasite that causes it (Trypanosoma cruzi) by Carlos Chagas in 1908/1909, with a special focus on the scientific and social context in which this occurred. Its inclusion in the international debate on European tropical medicine--especially with researchers from the German school of protozoology--and its connection with discussions on the modernization of the recently established Brazilian Republic are also examined. The discovery of Chagas disease became a decisive aspect in the scientific project that Oswaldo Cruz sought to establish at the institute that bears his name. It was extolled as a symbol of Brazils scientific ability t produce knowledge in line with the international scientific agenda, while simultaneously being attuned to the specific problems of the country.

Medicina, ciência e poder: as relações entre França, Alemanha e Brasil no período de 1919 a 1942

This research note proposes hypotheses and frameworks for the study of the dynamics of the German and French medical and scientific movement aimed at Latin America, and Brazil in particular, between 1919 and 1942. It also seeks to comprehend to what extent the efforts at intellectual cooperation and the concomitant flow of ideas, institutional models, common research agendas, and action strategies aimed at expanding the Franco-Germanic field of influence in this part of the American continent, were put into practice.

Doença de Chagas: a construção de um fato científico e de um problema de saúde pública no Brasil

O objetivo do artigo e analisar dois periodos da trajetoria de consolidacao e legitimacao cientifica e social da tripanossomiase americana ou doenca de Chagas, descoberta em 1909 no interior de Minas Gerais por Carlos Chagas, pesquisador do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Primeiramente, a fase das pesquisas em Lassance, durante a vida de Chagas, quando foram formulados os enunciados basicos sobre a doenca e, em seguida, a atuacao, nas decadas de 1940 e 1950, do grupo de pesquisadores reunidos no Centro de Estudos e Profilaxia da Molestia de Chagas na cidade mineira de Bambui. Consideramos que a descoberta da tripanossomiase americana, no sentido da validacao dos conhecimentos que tornaram a doenca um objeto estabelecido e aceito, deu-se mediante um processo longo que ultrapassou nao somente o episodio de identificacao da nova doenca, mas inclusive o periodo em que, em Lassance, as pesquisas foram ampliadas por Chagas e seus colaboradores. Nossa hipotese e a de que o trabalho desenvolvido em Bambui foi responsavel por garantir um acordo basico em torno da especificidade patologica e da relevância social da doenca, a partir do qual esta tornou-se efetivamente reconhecida tanto como fato cientifico estabelecido quanto como problema de saude publica.

Ciência, saúde e desenvolvimento: a doença de Chagas no Brasil (1943-1962)

The article analyzes the historical process by which Chagas disease, discovered in 1909, has been constructed as a specific medical entity and a public health issue in Brazil. Focusing on the role played by an Oswaldo Cruz Institute research post created in rural Minas Gerais in 1943, it proposes that the work carried out at this post was responsible for reaching a basic consensus that allowed the disease to attain scientific and social legitimacy. The meanings assigned to Chagas disease during this process were directly related to debates about the connections between science, health and development within the context of the World War II.

Endemias rurais, saúde e desenvolvimento: Emmanuel Dias e a construção de uma rede de aliados contra a doença de Chagas

The scope of this article is to analyze the trajectory of Emmanuel Dias (1908-1962), a researcher at the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (OCI) and director of the Center for Studies and Prophylaxis of Chagas Disease (OCI outpost established in 1943 in the city of Bambui, Minas Gerais), as a key actor in the acknowledgement of Chagas disease as a public health problem in Brazil and the Americas. It seeks to show that the conquest of this acknowledgement, the cornerstone of which was the staging of the first campaign to combat the disease in Brazil in 1950, was made possible by the intense political mobilization of Dias together with the various social groups, such as physicians, politicians and residents of rural areas, public health officials, governments and international organizations. This mobilization occurred during the 1940s and 1950s in a historical context marked by intense debate about the relationship between health and development and helped to construct a network of alliances that was critical for the recognition of Chagas disease as a chronic cardiopathy, which threatened the productivity of rural workers and represented a medical and social problem that merited public health actions and programs geared to get it under control.

Carta dos Editores

N o segundo número deste ano, a Revista da ABET oferece aos leitores contribuições de grande relevância para o conhecimento sobre o mercado de trabalho no Brasil. Como será observado durante a leitura dos ensaios aqui publicados, a revista reflete a formação multidisciplinar da ABET, ao abrigar artigos com diversos cortes empíricos notando-se o uso de abordagens que incorporam contribuições conceituais da sociologia, da antropologia e da ciência política.

Manoel Bomfim e Euclides da Cunha: vozes dissonantes aos horizontes do progresso

The article presents a counterpoint between the conceptions of Brazilian society developed by Euclides da Cunha and Manoel Bomfim in their books Os sertoes (1902; tr. Rebellion in the Backlands, 1944) and A America Latina: males de origem (1905). Framing both works against the climate of enthusiasm over national modernization which marked the turn of the century, the article identifies common points and differences: how these authors questioned the ongoing political-social process, in which Brazil was proclaimed to be on the road to progress and civilization; how each put forward their critical viewpoints regarding the logic and goals governing this process; and the limits that each imputed to the process then underway.