:: Virtual Exhibition: 100 years of the Expeditions of the
Oswaldo Cruz Institute in Northeast Brazil

March 18, 1912: researchers Arthur Neiva and Belisário Penna left the Oswaldo Cruz Institute, in Rio de Janeiro, heading for the Northeast. That would be one of the most important Scientific Expeditions, which marked the beginning of the XNUMXth century with true explorations of the interior of Brazil. The goal was to learn about the diseases, carry out a diagnosis and provide care to the population in the interior of the country.

Exactly one century later, the Scientific Expeditions are reissued, with a new focus: the perspective is to act on the current health scenario, which is different in each region, and associate its biological determinants with the social determinants of health, such as income, education, housing, sanitation and others.

Water distribution to the residents of Itumerim by the E. de Ferro São Francisco train, Bahia, 1912

Contemporary expeditions begin precisely in the Northeast, the Brazilian region with the fastest economic growth and which, at the same time, is home to more people living in conditions of extreme poverty. There are 9,6 million people in this condition – 59% of the 16,2 million Brazilians who still live on less than R$70 per capita per month, that is, less than R$350 for a family of five, according to IBGE data.

These people are the priority focus of the actions of the Brasil Sem Miséria Plan, with which the federal government intends to face the challenge of eradicating extreme poverty in the country. In addition to the active search in the Northeast, Brasil Sem Miséria wants to find and restore the citizenship of over 2,7 million Brazilians in the Southeast (17%), 2,65 million in the North (17%), 715 thousand in the South (4% ) and 557 thousand in the Midwest (3%).

From 1912 to 1914, the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz expeditions to the Northeast were particularly impressive, featuring images of disease, geographic and cultural isolation, illiteracy and poverty, with emphasis on rural endemics that still challenge public policies without having been controlled as a problem of health. 

His report was published as a scientific article in the journal “Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz”, whose collection is freely accessible on the internet. In the analysis of historian Dominichi Sá, “of all the expeditions carried out by the IOC, the Neiva-Penna expedition had the greatest repercussion in Brazilian intellectual, medical and political circles”. 

Juazeiro, Largo da Prefecture, Bahia, 1912

The expeditions of the XNUMXst century bring the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz to the scene again, now associated with all other Institutos da Fiocruz and several partners in universities, health departments, cultural groups, non-governmental organizations, technical schools, federal institutes, and other instances of civil society.

They no longer need to report the sanitary and environmental reality, already known through the information systems of the Ministry of Health. What these new expeditions aim at is to mobilize an intersectoral articulation to face the social determinants of diseases associated with poverty, working on education and health promotion, prevention and environmental surveillance.

They want to put on the agenda the diseases neglected by the pharmaceutical industry, which is not interested in innovating and producing for neglected populations that cannot afford expensive medicines, neglected in their health and their citizenship, more vulnerable to diseases due to their low income and bad food, their low level of education, and their inadequate housing and sanitation conditions.

Social determinants that feed back the consequences of deficiency anemia and bacterial diseases with available treatments, such as blindness caused by trachoma or vascular surgery in children with rheumatic disease, in addition to enhancing the biological risks that arise from the presence of transmitters and agents that cause secular diseases such as leprosy and tuberculosis, worms and parasites, leishmaniasis, dengue and malaria and all combinations of these with emerging viruses and chronic diseases.

Determinants that are also the focus of the Brasil Sem Miséria Plan, with the understanding that poverty is multidimensional and that health is not just a matter of the health sector.

Main Street of S. José da Canastra – hamlet in the backlands of Bahia, 100 kilometers from Remanso, 1912

Revisit the regions that the pioneers of the Institute described, cities that engaged in the actions of Brasil sem Miséria and in the fight against neglected diseases, share educational activities with teachers, health agents, cultural and social assistance professionals, build bridges between sectors and strengthen the existing ones, immersing their students in the territories of real Brazil where the social determinants of health are perceived, are the new products expected by Fiocruz in its new expeditions of science, education and culture for health and overcoming poverty.

The first stop, on a pilot basis, took place from the 23rd to the 27th of January, in the municipality of Paudalho, in the interior of Pernambuco.

The little more than 50 residents of the city participated in activities in the square, film sessions, workshops and an open-air exhibition. For 40 teachers, health agents and students from the locality, the summer course 'Health is what matters, illness is what sucks' will address health issues. The main focus is on diseases associated with poverty, such as schistosomiasis, tuberculosis, geohelminthosis, leprosy and filariasis.

“Combining health promotion with disease prevention implies knowledge, exchange of knowledge and application of knowledge. It implies local cultural changes, where schools, basic health units and cultural groups play a very relevant role. Reaching this audience, disseminating and exchanging knowledge, raising awareness and mobilizing people is the main objective of the contemporary expeditions of Fiocruz, which will start in the Northeast and spread throughout the country, consolidating our partnership networks", says Tania Araújo-Jorge, director of the IOC and leader of the initiative. [::Read the coverage of the Paudalho Expedition].  

Paudalho family in 1912, a time when the original scientific expeditions of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute traveled through the interior of the country.

Brazil has already lifted 40 million people out of poverty and changed part of the main social determinants of communicable diseases. This, associated with health promotion and preventive and curative interventions, has already reduced the impact of infectious diseases on population mortality from more than 50% to less than 5%.

However, 16,2 million Brazilians remain in extreme poverty. Decided to participate in this national effort, the Oswaldo Cruz Institute delved into its origins and revisited the scientific expeditions carried out by its pioneers. Since then, there have been several, carried out by different researchers and in different circuits, all seeking to portray the local health situation, collect samples and describe the biological and epidemiological panorama from North to South of Brazil.

And as fieldwork trips continued and continue to this day.