Conocimiento científico y problemas de salud. Una enfermedad emergente en Argentina, el Síndrome Urémico Hemolítico

Abstract

The article analyzes the relationship between the production of scientific knowledge and a childhood disease named Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome. Our focus is on highlighting how biomedical science builds a way to "see" and define social problems, in this case a health problem that mainly affects the population under five years old in Argentina, and how from of those objective characteristics defined by biomedicine, public health sustained ways to address and intervene on the issue. From a qualitative methodology, data collection was conducted by a joint techniques included analysis of secondary sources, from the review of scientific articles on the disease, semi-structured interviews to scientists and public officials and observation at scientific conferences. We present the main features biomedicine concerning the disease and then analyze its implications on the design of health policies. Planning policy followed the logic of scientific knowledge production. New discoveries have been occurring over time and moved almost linearly to the design of policies to prevent and control the disease.