“Terrible disease, with high mortality, which deforms the individual”: the infectious morbus of smallpox

This article aims to analyze the speeches written and published by doctors in the press about the smallpox epidemic outbreaks that occurred in Paraíba in the early years of the twentieth century. Smallpox was a viral disease, of an epidemic nature, which constantly knocked on the door of Paraíba peo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Soares Júnior, Azemar dos Santos
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG)
Repositorio:História Revista (Online)
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.revistas.ufg.br:article/75171
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.ufg.br/historia/article/view/75171
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Smallpox
Illness
Press
Paraíba
Varíola
Doença
Imprensa
Descripción
Sumario:This article aims to analyze the speeches written and published by doctors in the press about the smallpox epidemic outbreaks that occurred in Paraíba in the early years of the twentieth century. Smallpox was a viral disease, of an epidemic nature, which constantly knocked on the door of Paraíba people and entered their bodies, deforming them into purulent pustules and which, in some cases, led them to death. To this end, the government tried to invest in timid vaccination campaigns against thedisease. Methodologically, I use the problematization of historical sources from the analysis of the discourse as proposed by Michel Foucault (2010), allowing me to perceive the disease as an event and the discourse about the disease as another event. These statements were published in the news press of A União, A Imprensa, Revista do IHGP and Revista Medicina. It is concluded that while medicalpedagogical information was stuck in the press pages, the unassisted population popped up inbladders.