OswaldoCross he was a doctor and sanitarist who was marked by the fight against epidemics in Brazil. He was behind the development of an anti-plague serum as well as the development of institutes that produced serums in the country. He also acted to combat disease epidemics that affected Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the 20th century.
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First years
OswaldoGonçalvesCross was born in the city of São Luiz do Paraitinga, in the interior of the state of São Paulo, on August 5, 1872. was son AmaliatabardBulliesCross it's from benedictGonçalvesCross, who earned his living as a doctor. Oswaldo Cruz was the eldest child of the couple and the only male, having also five sisters.
In 1877, Oswaldo Cruz's family moved to Rio de Janeiro, and there he received all of his education. In Rio de Janeiro, his father set up a medical clinic and had a good clientele, and the medical profession was passed on to his son. At the age of 14, in 1886, Oswaldo Cruz enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine.
medical career
In 1892, Oswaldo Cruz obtained a doctorate in medicine, and the biographers of the sanitarist emphasize that, since university, he had already demonstrated interest in microbiology, as his doctoral thesis addressed “microbial transmission over water”. That thesis fit the new studies that analyzed the role of microorganisms in the spread of disease.
At 22, Oswaldo Cruz was already responsible for managing his father's clinic and had a good laboratory in his house, obtained as a wedding gift from his wife's father, Emília da Fonseca. Oswaldo Cruz's father-in-law was a successful Portuguese merchant.
In 1896, Oswaldo Cruz got help from his father-in-law to continue his studies in Europe. So he was sent to France, where he studied microbiology, serum therapy and immunology, at the InstitutePasteur. Oswaldo Cruz also studied medicinecool at the Toxicology Institute, and Jaime Larry Benchimol adds that he still studied urology during the time in France|1|.
In 1899, Oswaldo Cruz returned to Brazil, and here he set up a clinic for urological care and a laboratory, both in Rio de Janeiro. Still in 1899, Oswaldo Cruz was appointed, with Adolfo Lutz and Vital Brazil, other important sanitarists of the time, to investigate the epidemic of bubonic plague that was happening in the city of Santos.
At the time there was a serumnasty which was used to fight the disease, but Brazil did not produce it. To combat bubonic plague here, it was decided to create two institutes that would be able to produce the serum. From this initiative came the InstituteButantan, in São Paulo, and the InstituteSerotherapyFederal, in Rio de Janeiro. By May 1900, the two institutes had already produced the country's first anti-plague serums.
In 1901, a place to carry out vaccination against bubonic plague was inaugurated in Rio de Janeiro: the Botafogo Polyclinic. This location was extremely important for Oswaldo Cruz's medical trajectory because there he carried out some studies on the yellow fever. In 1902, Oswaldo Cruz was invited to take over as director of the Federal Serum Therapy Institute.
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General Directorate of Public Health
In 1903, Oswaldo Cruz was invited by the president Rodrigues Alves and by the Minister of Justice at the time, JosephJoaquimSeabra, to take over the General Directorate of Public Health (DGSP), an agency that corresponded to the current Ministry of Health. As head of this body, Oswaldo Cruz would have to fight three diseases that were wreaking havoc in the capital: smallpox, feverYellow and plaguebubonic.
In the case of yellow fever, Oswaldo Cruz was up to date with studies that suggested that the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes and not by contact between human beings. Thus, Oswaldo Cruz favored the fight against the mosquito as the main way to fight the disease, and teams of hygiene were formed to go through the houses in Rio de Janeiro and destroy possible outbreaks of the mosquito.
In the case of bubonic plague, Oswaldo Cruz prioritized the extermination of the great vector of the disease: rats. Teams were formed to exterminate them across the city, and citizens were encouraged by the DGSP to capture the rats in exchange for a cash reward. It is said that, in this action, about 50,000 rats were killed in Rio de Janeiro.
The great controversy of Oswaldo Cruz's performance while he was head of the DGSP was the smallpox vaccination campaign. The sanitarist decided to create a mandatory vaccination campaign in the city, and this initiative did not please the population. The lack of information, the fear of the vaccine and the brutality of the vaccination caused a great popular revolt to break out in Rio de Janeiro.
This revolt began on November 10, 1904, and there was vandalism in some neighborhoods in the city. In the midst of this, an attempted military coup took place, and dozens of people were killed. Only on November 23 did the situation in the capital begin to normalize. THE mandatory vaccination has been withdrawn, but years later, the population began to look for the vaccine when new smallpox outbreaks occurred.
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Last years
Oswaldo Cruz continued at DGSP after the Vaccine Revolt and carried out studies on the sanitary conditions of other regions of the country. He also sought to develop a combat plan for the tuberculosis, but without much success. In 1909, Oswaldo Cruz left the position of the General Directorate of Public Health to devote himself to the InstituteOswaldoCross (former Federal Serum Therapy Institute).
In 1910, Oswaldo Cruz was invited to be part of a expedition that would accompany the works of the Madeira-Mamoré railway, which was built in the North region of Brazil. The objective of this expedition, which Oswaldo Cruz headed, was fight the malariawhich affected the workers and impeded the continuation of the works.
During this period, Oswaldo Cruz was already a public health worker. recognitionInternational, and this could be seen when he received a gold medal during the 14th International Congress on Hygiene and Demography held in Berlin. The tribute to Oswaldo Cruz was given for his work in combating different epidemics in Brazil.
In 1913, he was elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters and, in 1915, he left the Oswaldo Cruz Institute for health reasons. He moved to Petrópolis, becoming mayor of the city. On February 11, 1917, Oswaldo Cruz died because onekidney failure crisis.
Grades
|1| BENCHIMOL, Jaime Larry. Urban reform and Vaccine Revolt in the city of Rio de Janeiro. In.: FERREIRA, Jorge and DELGADO, Lucilia de Almeida Neves (eds.). Brazil republican: the time of oligarchic liberalism: from the Proclamation of the Republic to the 1930 Revolution. Rio de Janeiro: Brazilian Civilization, 2018. P. 233.
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/oswaldo-cruz.htm
