Smallpox immunization in 19th century Brazil: inoculation, variolization, vaccine, and revaccination

Abstract

A product of the fear stirred by variola and the need to avoid contagion and spread of the disease, smallpox immunization has been a longstanding practice around the world, applied in different forms in different societies. Three methods have been used in Brazil-'variolization', Jennerian vaccination, and animal vaccination- prompting profound discord within the national medical community. The article endeavors to identify the main points of these debates, as found in the Gazeta Médica da Bahia and the Gazeta Médica do Rio de Janeiro, periodicals of note at the time and important spaces where those wielding medical knowledge and power sought legitimacy.