The first outbreak of yellow fever in Brazil occurred in 1685 in the city of Recife, but the first public health campaign to combat it would not start until six years later, in 1691. In 1849 another major outbreak of yellow fever occurred in Brazil. This time it killed 2.800 people in the city of Salvador and 4.160 in Rio de Janeiro, then the seat of the Brazilian Empire. In 1881 Cuban medical doctor Carlos Finlay proves that the mosquito Aedes aegypti is the vector that carries the yellow fever virus. Between 1850 and 1899 yellow fever spread all over Brazil; however, it is not until 1901, based on Dr. Finlay’s findings, that a fight against the Aedes aegypti is started in Brazil. The efforts to eradicate yellow fever would take Brazil in a battle that would last for fifty years.
The purpose of this study is to use Geographic Information System to analyze the impact of public health campaigns to eradicate yellow fever in Brazil during a one hundred-year period, from 1849 to 1949. The following question will guide this research:
- What is the relationship between public health policies and the eradication of yellow fever in Brazil between 1849 and 1949?
In other words:
- What is the spatial distribution of yellow fever in Brazil in association with public health policies?
I intend to collect the data on the outbreaks of yellow fever as well as on the public health campaigns to combat them from primary and secondary sources (historical works published in the past) and from Brazilian federal government agencies.
Neda Bezerra
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