Political history and epidemiological thinking: Breilh and the political economy of health

Abstract

The objective of this study is to make an approximation between Jaime Breilh’s epidemiological thought and the Marxist political economy, identifying the points of convergence between his analyzes on health as a multidetermined social phenomenon. For this, a theoretical-conceptual essay was carried out, through a content analysis of excerpts from the first two chapters of Breilh’s book entitled Critical Epidemiology: emancipatory science and interculturality. In these, the construction of his epidemiological thought was exposed, comparing withthe historical and political conjuncture of his intellectual production that justify the tangenciamentos between epidemiological construct and politicaleconomy.