Abstract
After the first half of the 19th century elapsed, a new disease began to ravage the Argentine population, generating panic and measures taken by the State in order to fight it. Cholera punished Argentina three times in that half of century: 1867-68, 1886-87 and 1894-1895. It had an important impact in cities where, in turn, a growing modernization process was taking place. It was also the time when the medical elite began a slow but unavoidable legitimation and clambered in the State a candidate to become health safeguards. This article aims to analyze the strategies, practices and conflicts of the different stakeholders who participated in the first two cholera outbreaks that occurred in the city of Cordoba. These epidemics take on significant value because they are an indicator of the degree of insertion of the medical elite in the State and the strategies chosen by medicine and other social stakeholders to fight them. Thus, we believe that the establishment of certain institutions such as the Provincial Hygiene Council and the Local Public Health Service determined the rise of the medical elite at certain levels of the State; from those places they could legitimize with the development of fighting strategies. Keywords: Argentina, Cordoba, Epidemics, Cholera, Medicine.
Highlights
This article aims to analyze the strategies, practices and conflicts of the different stakeholders who participated in the first two cholera outbreaks that occurred in the city of Cordoba
These epidemics take on significant value because they are an indicator of the degree of insertion of the medical elite in the State and the strategies chosen by medicine and other social stakeholders to fight them
We believe that the establishment of certain institutions such as the Provincial Hygiene Council and the Local Public Health Service determined the rise of the medical elite at certain levels of the State; from those places they could legitimize with the development of fighting strategies
Summary
Las epidemias de cólera en la ciudad de Córdoba fueron elementos catalizadores de los conflictos y las percepciones tanto de médicos como por parte del Estado. La llegada del cólera en 1867 generó una serie de conflictos por la escasa autoridad del Estado para imponer a la medicina académica como un factor presente en la lucha contra la enfermedad. A partir de esta debilidad, los conflictos se suscitaron tanto hacia adentro como hacia fuera del Estado, y la Iglesia, como institución con un importante capital social, logró capitalizar el desenlace de la epidemia, mientras que la medicina académica fracasó en la lucha contra la enfermedad. El Consejo de Higiene impuso una postura de segregación hacia los sectores humildes de la población, quienes a partir de ese momento pasaron a formar parte de las clases peligrosas. Ese poder fue utilizado para generar acciones segregacionistas y discriminatorias hacia ciertos sectores de la sociedad, los desfavorecidos, que habitaban los márgenes de la ciudad y que fueron tratados como clases que era portadoras, per se, del mal
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