Epidemiology, Immunology, and Yellow Fever: The Rockefeller Foundation in Brazil, 1923-1939

Journal of the History of Biology

Volumn 30, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 397-417

  Löwy, Ilana ^a  

^a HÔPITAL NECKER ENFANTS MALADES   (France)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BRAZIL; EPIDEMIOLOGY; HISTORY; HUMAN; IMMUNOLOGY; NON PROFIT ORGANIZATION; UNITED STATES; YELLOW FEVER;

ALLERGY AND IMMUNOLOGY; BRAZIL; EPIDEMIOLOGY; FOUNDATIONS; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; UNITED STATES; YELLOW FEVER;

EID: 2542556724     PISSN: 00225010     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/A:1004295806141     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. This official history is presented, e.g., in RF Annual Report for 1941; RF Annual Report for 1942; Raymond Fosdick, The Rockefeller Foundation (New York: Rockefeller Foundation Press, 1951).
2. This official history is presented, e.g., in RF Annual Report for 1941; RF Annual Report for 1942; Raymond Fosdick, The Rockefeller Foundation (New York: Rockefeller Foundation Press, 1951).
3. This official history is presented, e.g., in RF Annual Report for 1941; RF Annual Report for 1942; Raymond Fosdick, The Rockefeller Foundation (New York: Rockefeller Foundation Press, 1951).
4. Adrian Stokes, J. H. Bauer, and N. P. Hudson, "Transmission of Yellow Fever to Macaccus Rhesus: A Preliminary Note," J. Am. Med. Ass., 90 (1928), 253-254.
5. Hideyo Noguchi, Henry R. Muller, Octavio Torres et al., Experimental Studies of Yellow Fever in Northern Brazil, Monograph 20 (New York: Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 1924); Paul Franklin Clark, "Hideyo Noguchi, 1876-1928," Bull. Hist. Med., 33 (1959), 3-20.
6. Hideyo Noguchi, Henry R. Muller, Octavio Torres et al., Experimental Studies of Yellow Fever in Northern Brazil, Monograph 20 (New York: Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 1924); Paul Franklin Clark, "Hideyo Noguchi, 1876-1928," Bull. Hist. Med., 33 (1959), 3-20.
7. Max Theiler, "Susceptibility of White Mice to the Virus of Yellow Fever," Science, 71 (1930), 367; Wilbur A. Sawyer and Wray Lloyd, "The Use of Mice in Tests of Immunity against Yellow Fever," J. Exp. Med., 54 (1931), 533-555.
8. Max Theiler, "Susceptibility of White Mice to the Virus of Yellow Fever," Science, 71 (1930), 367; Wilbur A. Sawyer and Wray Lloyd, "The Use of Mice in Tests of Immunity against Yellow Fever," J. Exp. Med., 54 (1931), 533-555.
9. Fred Soper, H. Penna, E. Cardoso, et al., "Yellow Fever without Aedes aegypti: Study of a Rural Epidemic in the Valle do Chanaan, Espirito Santo, Brazil, 1932," Am. J. Hyg., 18 (1933), 555-587.
10. Max Theiler and H. H. Smith, "The Use of Yellow Fever Virus Modified by in vitro Cultivation for Human Immunization," J. Exp. Med., 65 (1937), 787-800.
11. Fred L. Soper, "The Newer Epidemiology of Yellow Fever," Amer. J. Pub. Health, 27 (1937), 1-14.
12. Soper to Raymond Fosdick, director of the RF, January 9, 1941. Rockefeller Archive Center (RAC), R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 16, folder 141.
13. Lewis Hackett's notes, 1951, RAC, R.G. 3, Series 908, box 3, folder 19.1, p. 750.
14. Soper started to talk about eradication in staff conferences in 1934 and presented this goal in public for the first time in his report for the Pan African Conference of Public Health. Johannesburg, November 20-30, 1935. At first, other public health experts were skeptical; they were convinced, however, by the successful eradication of Anopheles gambiae (the vector of malaria) from northern Brazil in 1937-1938. Hackett's notes (above, n. 9).
15. This device was borrowed from malaria experts. Fred L. Soper, "Present Day Methods for the Study and Control of Yellow Fever," Amer. J. Trop. Med., 17 (1937), 655-676.
16. Soper to Fosdick, (above, n. 8), report of Brazilian office of IHD, unsigned (probably written by Soper) for 1939, RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305. After World War II, Soper, who became the director of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and one of the leaders of World Health Organization (WHO), strongly promoted vector eradication.
17. Michael Worboys, "Colonial Medicine and Tropical Imperialism: A Comparative Perspective" (paper given at the Conference of Dutch Tropical Medicine, Amsterdam, September 1989).
18. The RF experts in Brazil wrote numerous letters and reports. In the 1930s each was also asked to keep a diary of activities and to send a copy to the office of IHD in Rio de Janeiro and to the IHD in New York. Special diaries were kept during expeditions. The point of view of Brazilian collaborators of the RF is less well documented, but it may be (partly) restored from correspondence with RF experts, scientific publications, archival material (such as the Celmenino Fraga archives at Casa Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro) and the archives of oral history of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (also at Casa Oswaldo Cruz).
19. The co-direction existed on paper only. Sebastiao Barroso, the director of the Rural Prophylaxis office at Salvador de Bahia, resigned in 1923, protesting against what he saw as the transformation of his job into a purely nominal one, and the taking over of all responsibility by the RF experts. Homer Brett, "Anti-Yellow Fever work in Bahia by the Rockefeller Foundation," memorandum, December 11, 1923, RAC, R.G. 5, Series 2, box 24, folder 124.
20. The agreement with the RF was made official by a decree of December 21, 1923 (no. 16300), by the Brazilian government.
21. IHB, document on policy orientations, May 1925. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305.
22. François Delaporte, The History of Yellow Fever: An Essay on the Birth of Tropical Medicine (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1991).
23. Steven C. Williams, "Nationalism and Public Health: The Convergence of Rockefeller Foundation Technique and Brazilian Federal Authority during the Time of Yellow Fever, 1925-1930," in Missionaries of Science: The Rockefeller foundation and Latin America, ed. Marcos Cueto (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 23-51.
24. Soper to Russell (director of the IHD), February 8, 1928, and Russell to Soper, march 1, 1928. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 20, folder 158.
25. In 1923 there was no general agreement over the nature of the YF agent, and the RF experts in Brazil usually supported Noguchi's Leptospira icteroides hypothesis.
26. Henry Carter to Joseph White (director of the IHB office in Brazil), February 14, 1923. RAC, R.G. 5, Series 1, box 73, folder 1035.
27. D. F. Freire to G. Jameson Carr, from the RF, October 4, 1926. RAC, R. G. 5, Series 2, box 23, folder 158; Odair Franco, Historia da Febre Amarela no Brazil (Rio de Janeiro: Ministerio da Saude, Departemento Nacional de Endemias Rurais, 1969), In the 1920s Brazilian scientists from the Oswaldo Cruz Institute also refuted Noguchi's hypothesis that Leptospira icteroides was the etiological agent of yellow fever and supported a viral hypothesis instead.
28. Joseph H. White, "Memorandum descriptive of work against yellow fever, 1925." RAC, R.G. 5, Series 305, box 23, folder 138; Connor to Russell, April 4, 1928. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 20, folder 158.
29. The RF experts repeatedly affirmed that isolation of the sick was of no epidemiological importance, and stressed their exclusive interest in antilarval measures. White, "memorandum" (above, n. 24).
30. A. W. Burke to Russell, April 3, 1927. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 19, folder 155.
31. Later the RF experts agreed that YF in children is usually "atypical" and can be easily confused with typhoid fever and other "fevers." E.g., Russell to Soper, September 19, 1933. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 172.
32. Report of Lucian C. Smith (addressed to M. Connor) of March 14, 1927. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 19, folder, 155. L. C. Smith directed the RF office in Fortaleza.
33. The author is perhaps making an allusion to the bloody repression of numerous revolts in the Northeast, the first among which was the rebellion led by the religious mystic Antonhio Conselhero in 1896-97. This rebellion was described in Euclido da Cunha's novel Os Sertoes, published in 1902, which "revealed" the existence of the interior of Brazil to urban elites. Padro Cicero supported Conselhero's rebellion.
34. Laurenço Filho, "Padre Cicero Romao Baptista" (manuscript, dated 1926). RAC, R.G. 3.1, Series 908, box 3, folder 19.1. The RF experts befriended Padre Cicero, who later supported RF campaigns. They also noted with amusement that the living symbol of the primitive faith of the "sertoes" became, under their influence, an avid reader of National Geographic Magazine and an admirer of John D. Rockefeller. Smillie to Russell, May 31, 1927. RAC, R.G. 1.1 Series 305, box 21, folder 155; Hackett's interviews with B. Wilson, RAC, R.G. 3.1, Series 908, box 3, folder 19.1.
35. Michael Connor, the head of the IHD office in Brazil, at first strongly resisted the suggestion that YF was present in Brazil's interior, and in 1928 refuted the diagnosis of a case of YF in Sergipe made by Brazilian pathologists. Connor to Russell, April 24, 1928, RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 20, folder 158.
36. Connor to Russell, November 6, 1929. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 20, folder 121.
37. Thomas E. Skidmore, Politics in Brazil, 1930-1964 (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1964): W. G. Santos, Cidadania e Justicia (Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1979).
38. Thomas E. Skidmore, Politics in Brazil, 1930-1964 (London, Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1964): W. G. Santos, Cidadania e Justicia (Rio de Janeiro: Campus, 1979).
39. Fosdick, The Rockefeller Foundation (above, n. 1).
40. H. Roche Lima, "Da importancia practica das lessoes do higado na febra amerelle," Rev. Med. Hambourg, 2 (1921), 336-339; C. Marginos Torres, "On the Importance in Post Modern Diagnosis of Yellow Fever, of Microscopic Lesions Described by Rocha Lima and Hoffman," Memorais Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 18 (1926), 13-18.
41. H. Roche Lima, "Da importancia practica das lessoes do higado na febra amerelle," Rev. Med. Hambourg, 2 (1921), 336-339; C. Marginos Torres, "On the Importance in Post Modern Diagnosis of Yellow Fever, of Microscopic Lesions Described by Rocha Lima and Hoffman," Memorais Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 18 (1926), 13-18.
42. Two researchers, E. R. Rickard from the IHD and Deicio Pareias from the DNSP, claimed to be the (sole) inventors of visceroctome. Lewis W. Hackett, interview with Rickard and Kumm. RAC, R.G. 3, Series 908, box 1, folder 8. Decio Pareias, "The Creation of Visceroctomy Service for the Diagnosis of Yellow Fever and the First Visceroctome," in Brazilian Medical Contributions, ed. Leonardo Ribeiro (Rio de Janeiro: Livzaria José Olympio Editera, 1939), pp. 106-107.
43. Brazilian government decree 21, 434, May 23, 1932, approving the regulation of the Yellow Fever Service. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 167.
44. Sawyer and Lloyd, "The Use of Mice" (above, n. 4).
45. Orientation document of the IHD, June 20, 1929; Russell's memorandum of June, 20, 1929. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 20, folder 160.
46. F. L. Soper, B. D. Wilson, S. Lima, and W. Sa Atunes, The Organization of Nation-Wide Anti-Aedes Aegypti Measures in Brazil (New York: Rockefeller Foundation, 1942).
47. Hackett's interview with Soper, February 17-18, 1951. RAC R.G. 3.1, Series 908, box 1, folder 8.
48. Soper et al. The Organization (above, n. 40).
49. Bruce Wilson, memorandum (project of legal instructions for the YFS) sent to Russell on July 21, 1931. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 167.
50. Soper to Russell, May 26, 1932. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 170.
51. Wilson memorandum (above, n. 43).
52. Decree 21, 434 (above, n. 37).
53. Elmer R. Rickard, "The Organization of the Visceroctome Service of the Brazilian Cooperative Yellow Fever Service," Amer. J. Trop. Med., 17 (1931), 163-190, pp. 163, 166-169.
54. Fred L. Soper and Alvaro de Andrade, "Studies of the Distribution of Immunity to Yellow fever in Brazil," Amer. J. Hyg., 18 (1933), 588-617, on pp. 589-590.
55. Soper, Penna, Cardoso, et al., "Yellow Fever without Aedes Aegypti" (above, n. 5), pp. 556, 560.
56. Hackett's notes following interview with W. Sawyer. RAC, R.G. 3, Series 908, box 3, folder 19.1, and Hackett manuscript, p. 49.
57. The preparation of this book was interrupted by Hackett's death.
58. Hackett's interview with Smillie, RAC, R.G. 3.1, Series 908, box 1, folder 7; Hackett's interviews with Kumm and Rickard, RAC, R.G. 3.1, Series 908, box 1, folder 9; Hackett's notes, February 17-18, 1951, RAC, R.G. 3.1, Series 908, box 1, folder 86.
59. Soper to Russell, May 14, 1932. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 170.
60. Richard M. Packard and Paulo Gadelha, "A Land Filled with Mosquitoes: Fred L. Soper, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Anopheles gambiae Invasion in Brazil," Parassitologia, 36 (1993), 197-213, esp. pp. 295-296.
61. Report on HID activities in Brazil, 1935. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 174.
62. Bruno Latour, Science in Action (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1987), p. 252, n. 10.
63. E.g., Lloyd to Sawyer, October 8, 1931, on epidemic of typhus in mice, which prevented the execution of protection tests. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 168; Muench, memorandum on standardization of mouse tests of May 15, 1933, RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 171; Sawyer to Soper, January 1, 1934, on changes in definition of "positive responses" in these tests; Soper to Russell, October 11, 1934, on (past) difficulties of pathologists in recognizing "typical" YF liver slides. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 174.
64. Bruno Latour, "Comment redistribuer le grand partage," Rev. Synth., 110 (1983), 202-236; Marie-Noëlle Bourguet, "La collecte du monde: voyage et histoire naturelle, fin XVIIe-début XIXe siecle," in Le Muséum au premier siècle de son histoire (in press); Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
65. Bruno Latour, "Comment redistribuer le grand partage," Rev. Synth., 110 (1983), 202-236; Marie-Noëlle Bourguet, "La collecte du monde: voyage et histoire naturelle, fin XVIIe-début XIXe siecle," in Le Muséum au premier siècle de son histoire (in press); Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
66. Bruno Latour, "Comment redistribuer le grand partage," Rev. Synth., 110 (1983), 202-236; Marie-Noëlle Bourguet, "La collecte du monde: voyage et histoire naturelle, fin XVIIe-début XIXe siecle," in Le Muséum au premier siècle de son histoire (in press); Theodore M. Porter, Trust in Numbers: The Pursuit of Objectivity in Science and Public Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995).
67. The importance of the control over workers is highlighted by the fact that it consumed more than 25 percent of the YFS budget. Soper et al. The Organization (above, n. 40). On deflection of suspicion through quantification, see Porter, Trust in Numbers (above, n. 58).
68. The importance of the control over workers is highlighted by the fact that it consumed more than 25 percent of the YFS budget. Soper et al. The Organization (above, n. 40). On deflection of suspicion through quantification, see Porter, Trust in Numbers (above, n. 58).
69. Soper to Russell, January 25, 1935. RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 175.
70. E.g., Soper et al., "Yellow Fever Without Aedes Aegypti" (above, n. 5); Fred L. Soper and Alvaro de Andrade, "Studies of the Distribution of Immunity" (above, n. 48), pp. 588, 617; Fred L. Soper, Elmer E. Rickard, and Peter J. Crawford, "The Routine Post Mortem Removal of Tissue from Rapidly Fatal Cases for the Discovery of Silent Yellow Fever Foci," Amer. J. Hyg., 19 (1934), 549-566; Soper, "Present Day Methods" (above, n. 11); Rickard, "The Organization" (above, n. 47).
71. E.g., Soper et al., "Yellow Fever Without Aedes Aegypti" (above, n. 5); Fred L. Soper and Alvaro de Andrade, "Studies of the Distribution of Immunity" (above, n. 48), pp. 588, 617; Fred L. Soper, Elmer E. Rickard, and Peter J. Crawford, "The Routine Post Mortem Removal of Tissue from Rapidly Fatal Cases for the Discovery of Silent Yellow Fever Foci," Amer. J. Hyg., 19 (1934), 549-566; Soper, "Present Day Methods" (above, n. 11); Rickard, "The Organization" (above, n. 47).
72. E.g., Soper et al., "Yellow Fever Without Aedes Aegypti" (above, n. 5); Fred L. Soper and Alvaro de Andrade, "Studies of the Distribution of Immunity" (above, n. 48), pp. 588, 617; Fred L. Soper, Elmer E. Rickard, and Peter J. Crawford, "The Routine Post Mortem Removal of Tissue from Rapidly Fatal Cases for the Discovery of Silent Yellow Fever Foci," Amer. J. Hyg., 19 (1934), 549-566; Soper, "Present Day Methods" (above, n. 11); Rickard, "The Organization" (above, n. 47).
73. E.g., Soper et al., "Yellow Fever Without Aedes Aegypti" (above, n. 5); Fred L. Soper and Alvaro de Andrade, "Studies of the Distribution of Immunity" (above, n. 48), pp. 588, 617; Fred L. Soper, Elmer E. Rickard, and Peter J. Crawford, "The Routine Post Mortem Removal of Tissue from Rapidly Fatal Cases for the Discovery of Silent Yellow Fever Foci," Amer. J. Hyg., 19 (1934), 549-566; Soper, "Present Day Methods" (above, n. 11); Rickard, "The Organization" (above, n. 47).
74. E.g., Soper et al., "Yellow Fever Without Aedes Aegypti" (above, n. 5); Fred L. Soper and Alvaro de Andrade, "Studies of the Distribution of Immunity" (above, n. 48), pp. 588, 617; Fred L. Soper, Elmer E. Rickard, and Peter J. Crawford, "The Routine Post Mortem Removal of Tissue from Rapidly Fatal Cases for the Discovery of Silent Yellow Fever Foci," Amer. J. Hyg., 19 (1934), 549-566; Soper, "Present Day Methods" (above, n. 11); Rickard, "The Organization" (above, n. 47).
75. Soper to Sawyer, March 13, 1934, RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 21, folder 173.
76. Soper to Sawyer, June 7, 1933, RAC, R.G. 1.1, Series 305, box 22, folder 171.
77. On "boundary objects," see S. Leigh Star and James Griesemer, "Institutional Ecology, 'Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in the Berkeley Museum of Vertebrate Zoology," Soc. Stud. Sci., 19 (1988), 387-420.