International scientific relations: The yellow fever laboratories program of the Rockefeller Foundation in the United States, South America and Africa (1935-1947)

• Grant number: 13/13033-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2013
• End date: August 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Science
• Principal Investigator: Cristina de Campos
• Grantee: Aleidys Hernandez Tasco
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências (IG). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 14/01561-9 - Centers for disease control: the Rockefeller Foundation and the yellow fever laboratories in the United States, South America and Africa, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The Rockefeller Foundation's general program in public health in 1931 was focused on laboratory studies of specific diseases such as yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis among others. Nonetheless, since 1935, the priority for the Foundation became focusing its efforts on epidemiological studies of yellow fever, carrying out cooperative activities with the governments of Brazil, Colombia and the British colonies of Uganda and Nigeria, establishing new laboratories of fieldwork and central laboratory work responsible for researching this disease. On the other hand, the advances developed under these laboratories in order to understand the scale epidemiological of those diseases served as an example, to the governments of countries in which the Foundation was operating, to emphasize the importance of laboratory studies. Therefore, the main goal of this work is to analyze the dynamic of the medical-scientific program that it was established in those yellow fever laboratories of Rockefeller Foundation and the governments of Brazil, Colombia and the British colonies of Uganda and Nigeria. The establishment of such laboratories, installed between 1935 and 1947, allow us to understand the international scientific relations formulated from the study of yellow fever. This research will be based on documents and literature still unexplored such as field diaries, letters, reports, official documents and so on, in order to provide a broad overview of the international scientific relations, since in this work is proposed to analyze the role of actors and institutions ignored by historiography of science. In this fashion, it is expected identify institutional models and theoretical frameworks among countries in the establishment of laboratories, which served to formulate models and scientific research traditions.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

TASCO, Aleidys Hernandez. Construction of an International Public Health Model: Rockefeller Foundation Yellow Fever Laboratories program in the United States, South America and Africa (1935-1950). 2016. Doctoral Thesis - Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Geociências Campinas, SP.