Abstract

RODRIGUEZ OCANA, Esteban. Typhus and the laboratory in post-Civil War Spain. Dynamis [online]. 2017, vol.37, n.2, pp.489-515. ISSN 2340-7948.

Typhus fever appeared as an epidemic in the post-Civil War years and was responsible for a specific scientific initiative within the newly reconstructed National Institute and School of Public Health. It counted on significant international participation, from the Rockefeller Foundation to the Pasteur Institute, and it turned Spain into a crossroads for the exchange of theories and practices from the most relevant schools in the search for an efficient vaccine. This paper focuses on the elements involved and analyses the results obtained. The scarcity of information, a certain mistrust on the part of participants, and the rapid resolution of the situation meant that the Spanish Public Health Service gained no significant advantage. However, it greatly enhanced the professional careers of some of the scientists and officials involved in the project, while the true value of these experiences was to be revealed in the USA years later.

Keywords : typhus fever; Laigret vaccine; Giroud vaccine; Cox vaccine; Eduardo Gallardo; Julián Sanz; Gerardo Clavero del Campo; Florencio Pérez-Gallardo; Rockefeller Foundation; Institut Pasteur.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )