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many, many fleas in the house it was Mário Jorge and
another man called José that came with a disinfecting
device; it was a disinfection with DDT”; and her friend
added that “DDT was for fleas and bedbugs” (Isilda and
Matilde 2006).
The sometimes embarrassed reference of the inter-
viewees to fleas and bedbugs, as well as to mosquitoes
and the radical measures to eliminate them had noth-
ing to do with malaria; they were a means to reinforce
rural workers’ former appalling living conditions,
when considered from the standpoint of what is pres-
ently thought of as hygienic and proper. In their speech,
their houses made of pug and cane, covered with straw
and windowless were not
Anopheles
’ harbouring sites,
threatening them with malaria, as described in medical
literature; they were a material proof of their dignified
poverty. Mosquitoes were much less thought of as ma-
laria transmitters than as an annoying presence disturb-
ing or preventing the labourers rest:
These houses around here would thrive with mosqui-
toes. Do you know what we used for the mosquitoes?
It was a stove like that one over there filled with bits of
sticks and straw and such smoke that it felt as if we were
inside an oven, hot as hell! I don’t know how we didn’t
suffocate. And our houses didn’t have these windows;
they had these slits for airing, almost nothing. (Antonio,
2006)
We lived in shacks but it was all... outside canes and
inside they were lined with [rice] bags; we seamed the
bags together and then lined the walls and everything
was whitewashed. It was all very white inside.
(Dionisia, 2006)
Do you know where we slept to have some rest? On
top of the trees, like
birds.Weput some sticks tied with
wire or rope and then a cork board and ferns and that
was it… that’s how we slept because of the mosquitoes
that would not let us rest, in those days.
(José, 2006)
Treating malaria
Such varying accounts of malaria causation did not
prevent infected people from looking for medical as-
sistance at the malaria stations and posts. People used
these places according to their perceived needs, work
hours and the distance to be travelled; in some plac-
es malaria stations and posts became very popular as
places where people went looking for relief for their
various ailments and not only malaria. As one of the
interviewees, put it “the shakes post was the poor peo-
ple’s relief; whether we had the shakes or not, we al-
ways went there. Otherwise we would have to pay to
see a doctor” (Isilda 2006).
Nevertheless, when it came to malaria people did not
depend on the post for a diagnosis; although many in-
terviewees mentioned the ear pricking and spleen pal-
pation done there, they did not rely on these technical
procedures to know what was making them ill.While
to doctors and visiting nurses malaria diagnosis should
be confirmed through such procedures, people who
went to the post had already decided what their trouble
was by experiencing the well-known symptoms.There-
fore, they submitted to the “medical ritual” just to get
free medicines; quinine and atebrin (a synthetic malaria
drug) were the two mostly mentioned and were given
at the post under strict dosage and treatment length in-
structions, which were often ignored. Peoples’ use of
these drugs followed a practical sense based on visible
symptoms instead of microscopic parasites, as well as
by a pressing need to end physical suffering and return
to work. Therefore, the drugs treatment might be in-
terrupted as soon as symptoms disappeared.
On the other hand, medicines given at the malaria post
were not the only therapeutic resource that people
could get. Quinine and other peculiar drugs had been
advertised in newspapers for many decades. For those
who could afford it these were alternative choices. But
the most mentioned complementary therapeutics were
home made remedies and mixtures that could be used
along with the ones given at the malaria post. Home
remedies were often recommended by neighbours or
relatives and prepared mostly by women, the ones who
had the caring role. These remedies were property of
the community, immediately available to everyone re-
gardless of medical diagnosis and easy to take. If the ma-
laria post was far or malaria had not been diagnosed by
medical procedures, leading to drugs not being given
to the ailing, home remedies did the job. Furthermore,
the ingredients used to prepare those mixtures were
easily found at the neighbouring fields and woods or
were part of the common diet (Saavedra 2014).
A very bitter beverage consisting of water used to soak
a wild plant called “marcela” was one of the most popu-
lar remedies. Other herbs and grains were also used to
make similar beverages, such as lupine beans and
erva
férrea
(Prunella vulgaris). Their bitterness, comparable
to quinine’s, was perceived as a distinctive sign of their
efficiency to cure malaria (Landeiro 1943). On the oth-
er hand, the fact that these mixtures were the result of
vegetable maceration and that some of them should be
left outdoors overnight to catch night dew brings to
mind the miasmata that were identified as the cause of
malaria until the 19th century:
For the shakes it was
marcela
water that tasted like poi-