Doença de Chagas, doença do Brasil is a thorough analysis of the social construction of Cha-gas’ disease in Brazil, both as a medical-scientific object and as a “national disease.” The book is a fine example of the recent renewal of social and historical studies of science, medicine, and disease in Latin America. It discusses the convergence of social, political, and cognitive factors intervening in the changing definitions and characterizations of the disorder.
Chagas’ disease has been an endemic disorder affecting rural areas of many Latin American countries; according to Simone Petraglia Kropf it currently affects as many as 15 million people in 18 countries of the region (p. 15). It is produced by a parasite called Trypanosoma cruzi in honor of Oswaldo Cruz, the distinguished Brazilian epidemiologist who founded and was the first director of the Federal Serotherapy Institute (Instituto Soroterápico Federal, later renamed Instituto Oswaldo Cruz). It was in...
