O artigo examina a história das ideias sobre a febre amarela e o modo de combatê-la. Teorias miasmáticas, depois teorias microbianas concorrentes foram postas abaixo na virada do século XIX para o XX, quando prevaleceu aquela que norteou as campanhas de Oswaldo Cruz e outros sanitaristas. A febre amarela passou a ser vista como doença transmitida por uma única espécie de mosquito, com agente causal desconhe-cido, um único hospedeiro vertebrado (homem), grassando sobretudo nas cidades portuárias populosas das zonas quentes do planeta. Combatê-la havia significado alterar o ambiente que produzia os miasmas, depois neutralizar a suposta bactéria por meio de vacinas, desinfecções e do isolamento dos doentes; agora significava combater um mosquito nas cidades litorâneas da América e da costa ocidental da África. Na virada dos anos 1920 para os 1930, nova reviravolta: a febre amarela transformou-se em doença primaria-mente silvestre, causada por um vírus, tendo vários hospedeiros vertebrados e insetos vetores.
This article reviews the history of ideas regarding yellow fever and the ways to combat the disease. Miasmatic theories, then competing germ theories were overthrown at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century when prevailed the theory that guided the campaigns led by Oswaldo Cruz and other public health authorities. Yellow fever came to be seen as a disease transmitted by a single mosquito species, with no known etiological agent, only one vertebrate host (man), occurring mainly in populous port cities in the hot zones of the planet. Fighting yellow fever had meant changing the environment that produced miasmas, then neutralizing the supposed bacteria through vaccines, disinfections and patient isolation; now it meant fighting a mosquito in large coastal cities of America and West Africa. At the turn from the 1920s to the 1930s, a new turnaround: yellow fever became a primarily sylvatic disease, caused by a virus, with many vertebrate hosts and insect vectors.
This article reviews the history of ideas regarding yellow fever and the ways to combat the disease. Miasmatic theories, then competing germ theories were overthrown at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century when prevailed the theory that guided the campaigns led by Oswaldo Cruz and other public health authorities. Yellow fever came to be seen as a disease transmitted by a single mosquito species, with no known etiological agent, only one vertebrate host (man), occurring mainly in populous port cities in the hot zones of the planet. Fighting yellow fever had meant changing the environment that produced miasmas, then neutralizing the supposed bacteria through vaccines, disinfections and patient isolation; now it meant fighting a mosquito in large coastal cities of America and West Africa. At the turn from the 1920s to the 1930s, a new turnaround: yellow fever became a primarily sylvatic disease, caused by a virus, with many vertebrate hosts and insect vectors.
