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This article explores the politics of malaria eradication in Argentina during the first government of Juan D. Perón. The article developments the theme of historical convergence to understand the rapid mobilization and success of the climatic battle against malaria in Northwest Argentina. The nealy complete eradication of malaria in Argentina resulted from a combination of three factors. First, Carlos Alvarado, the director of Argentina's Malaria Service, had alredy developed a solid but flexible organizational base that allowed a dramatic change in control strategy. Second, an infusion of new technologies, especially DDT but also motor vehicles, was instrumental. Lastly, a radical reorintation of national public health policy in the 1940s, under the direction of Perón and his health minister, Ramón Carrillo, encouraged eradication. These figures embraced and refashioned long-standing organicist ideologies that hitched the strength of the nation-state to the health and vigor of its ordinary citizens. This ideological orientation was reflected in bold, populist political strategies that showcased swift, massive, and expensive public health campaigns, including malaria eradication. In the conclusion, the article explores the ambiguous connections between malaria eradication and an ecological perspective on the disease. [AU]

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RESUMO

This article explores the politics of malaria eradication in Argentina during the first government of Juan D. Perón. The article develops the theme of historical convergence to understand the rapid mobilization and success of the climactic battle against malaria in Northwest Argentina. The nearly complete eradication of malaria in Argentina resulted from a combination of three factors. First, Carlos Alvarado, the director of Argentina's Malaria Service, had already developed a solid but flexible organizational base that allowed a dramatic change in control strategy. Second, an infusion of new technologies, especially DDT but also motor vehicles, was instrumental. Lastly, a radical reorientation of national public health policy in the 1940s, under the direction of Perón and his health minister, Ramón Carrillo, encouraged eradication. These figures embraced and refashioned long-standing organicist ideologies that hitched the strength of the nation-state to the health and vigor of its ordinary citizens. This ideological orientation was reflected in bold, populist political strategies that showcased swift, massive, and expensive public health campaigns, including malaria eradication. In the conclusion, the article explores the ambiguous connections between malaria eradication and an ecological perspective on the disease.

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The Rockefeller Foundation played an important early role in promoting the use of DDT for malaria control. During World War II the Foundation helped test DDT in the United States. North Africa and Italy. From 1945 to 1952 the Foundation carried out an experimental anti-malaria program in Mexico as part of its global mission to diffuse knowledge of how to control malaria-bearing mosquitoes with DDT.

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For centuries Peruvians distinguished malaria from other conditions with different names in Spanish and in the native languages because it was a frequent occurrence in the coast and in the jungle located in the west and east of the Andean highlands. Frequency in different local contexts generated different meanings of malaria that appear more clearly when studying the campaigns of control and eradication of the 20th century. These meanings played an important role in the divisions and tensions that cross race, national integrity, and regional identity in this Andean country. This work deals with the medical and social dimensions of malaria's control and eradication efforts and the ways in which they codified geographical and racial distinctions within peru. Because malaria does not develop in the highlands, Andean migrants to the coast and the jungle regions are particularly susceptible. Some doctors associated the disease with Andean people, even contending that it was an indication of "Indians" weakness. Finally, this article analyses the spread and containment of malaria in light of the world eradication campaign initiated in the late 1950s and with regard to mass migration, urbanization, and other 20th-century phenomena.

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It is a little over 60 years since Blacklock, in an elegant study, demonstrated that in Sierra Leone human onchocerciasis was transmitted by a Simulium fly. Amazingly within 6 years of Blacklock's discovery an attempt was made, mainly using environmental management, to control Simulium in the Chiapas focus of Mexico, though this was not successful. Later Buckley was successful in eradicating Simulium neavei from the small Riana focus in Kenya by clearing riverine forest. However, it was not until DDT became widely available that Simulium control entered its heroic phase with campaigns in Kenya, Uganda and Zaire, some of which were highly successful. This led to an interest in controlling the vector in West Africa. The very different pattern of disease with very large foci virtually contiguous across tens of thousands of square kilometers suggested a difficult proposition and early attempts were not very successful. There is much of interest in the East and Central African schemes and in the West African forerunners of the OCP. In this talk an attempt will be made to capture something of the flavour of these pioneering efforts, to give credit to the men involved, and to highlight the successes against both the S. neavei and S. damnosum complex, and the advances which contributed to the successful planning of the OCP.

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