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História
called “pioneer medicine”, in which health profession-
als trained in United Kingdom played a major role. In
Brazil, the SAEU promoted Tropical Medicine, above
all in the country’s backlands (
sertão
), where medical
care was scarce, developing a set of actions that became
known as the “ABC of Philanthropy” in Goiás, Central
Brasil, with agencies located inAnápolis, Bananal Island
and Catalão.
In the paper ‘Into Africa: Two different ethical ap-
proaches to tropical diseases’, Carlos Lemos (CHLN,
Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisbon) discussed the careers
of two key figures, Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965) a
Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Peter Singer ( 1946 -),
an eminent contemporary philosopher, specialized in
applied ethics. It compares the professional trajecto-
ries and ethical thinking of the two authors, focusing
on their concerns regarding tropical diseases and the
different ways they chose to combat them, while un-
derlining the topicality of their ideas on reducing the
burden of tropical diseases. Schweitzer was a Lutheran
physician who self-funded his work with the Paris Mis-
sionary Society’s mission at Lambaréné, current Gabon.
By means of concerts and other fund-raising activities
he founded and equipped a hospital there. Together
with his wife, he examined and treated thousands of pa-
tients, who suffered from dysentery, malaria, sleeping
sickness, leprosy and tuberculosis. He was, however, a
controversial figure on account of his methods and the
conditions in which his hospital operated. Peter Singer,
an atheist philosopher, has argued in favour of charita-
ble activities to end global poverty. Endorsing the idea
of effective altruism, he holds that suffering should be
reduced in the most effective manner, using ‘charity
calculators’ to identify the most reliable charities. Ex-
amples given are the
Against Malaria Foundation
which
buys long-lasting insecticidal nets to protect people
from malaria, and the
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative
,
that provides deworming tablets to schools.
3.2.
The Affirmation ofTropical
Medical Schools: Experts and Medical
Networks.
In the second session, Jane Costa (Curator CEIOC, Casa
de Oswaldo Cruz/Fiocruz) and Magalí Romero de Sá
(Deputy director of Research and Training, Casa de
Oswaldo Cruz (Instituto Oswaldo Cruz/ Fiocruz) pre-
sented ‘The Entomological Collection of the Oswaldo
Cruz Institute/ Oswaldo Cruz Foundation: 115 years
of history on biodiversity and infectious diseases’. The
first expeditions by researchers of the COC/Fiocruz)
were carried out in the end of the 19
th
and beginning of
the 20
th
century, aiming to record and study the vectors
of infectious diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, and
Chagas disease, while evaluating the health conditions
in the Brazilian countryside. As a result, a great variety
of insects were collected, and new species described,
thereby laying the foundations for the Entomological
Collection of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute (CEIOC).
The symbolic milestone of this collection is
Anopheles
lutzii,
a malaria vector, which was collected and depos-
ited by Oswaldo Cruz himself, in 1901.Today, this col-
lection is estimated at 5.5 million insect specimens, be-
ing one of the biggest and oldest scientific collections in
LatinAmerica, and a relevant testimony of the Brazilian
science, biodiversity, and history. Several well-known
entomologists working on disease vectors deposited
specimens in the CEIOC, which is a reference for in-
numerous research projects developed by Fiocruz and
other scientific institutions in Brazil and abroad. The
celebrations of the 115 years of CEIOC, highlighted
the importance of the collection, while acknowledging
researchers who contributed to it. Nowadays, CEIOC
forms the basis for its research team’s work on biodi-
versity and infectious diseases.
‘The entomological collection of the
Instituto de Hygiene
e MedicinaTropical
(1938-1970)’ presented by Rita Lobo
(Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e
daTecnologia (CIUHCT), Faculdade de Ciências eTec-
nologia, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa), focused on
the history of medical entomology in Portugal. In the
context of scientific missions conducted during disease
outbreaks and epidemics, entomological collections
were assembled for further research into specimens.
IHMT’s entomological collection is not only a biodi-
versity repository from tropical regions, but also the
material testimony and the scientific heritage of the de-
velopment of medical entomology in Portugal. IHMT’s
collection consists of specimens collected during study
missions and researches conducted by Bruno de Mesqui-
ta, A. Colaço, Álvaro Gândara, Marini Abreu, Henrique
Ribeiro, Rui Pinhão, Costa Mourão, M. Pereira, A. Re-
belo, Gardette Correia, F. Gonçalves, Pedroso Ferreira
and Fraga deAzevedo.They were based at the IHMT, and
the institutions it managed or supervised, i.e. the Medi-
cal Research Institutes, Permanent Commissions for the
Combat against Endemic Diseases, and governmental
health Services of Angola, Macau, Mozambique, Portu-
guese Guinea, Portuguese India, S.Tomé e Príncipe, and
Timor, between 1938 and 1970.The paper is based upon
primary sources on medical entomological research, and
secondary bibliography on the Portuguese and European
history of medical entomology and tropical medicine. It
signals the existence of broader, national and internation-
al networks and their contribution to the consolidation
of medical entomology in Portuguese tropical medicine
during this time frame.