“Das providências, que se tem dado a respeito da saúde pública”: enfermidades e ações de combate à varíola na Porto Alegre do início do século XIX (1800-1835)

Abstract

The current dissertation analyzes the first steps of smallpox vaccination (method developed by the English physician and naturalist Edward Jenner in 1798) in Madre de Deus parish of Porto Alegre in the early 1800's, considering the local context and aspects related to public health. For that, I present, through the parish death registers, an overview of the diseases that affected Porto Alegre's population during this period, and identifying the main diseases, their symptoms and causes with the help of manuals and dictionaries of medicine of the time. From that, I search information or actions taken in favor of public health and the well-being of individuals in the Municipal Council of Porto Alegre, where, in addition to measures for vaccination, there are requests for improvement of public spaces. Newspapers from the same period were also used, as well as a bibliographic reference that allowed us to understand the importance of this measure and even to provide notes on how this technique was carried out in other places. In order for this research to be possible and completed, it was fundamental to collect documents and other data from Dr. Julio Cezar Muzzi, who, in addition to having played his role as a healing practitioner, was an active figure in society and in the legislative sphere and the main responsible for the introduction of the vaccine in Porto Alegre.