Knowledge and Power: The Asymmetry of Interests of Colombian and Rockefeller Doctors in the Construction of the Concept of “Jungle Yellow Fever,” 1907–1938

Abstract

This study examines the asymmetries among the different interests of officials and medical doctors who worked for the Rockefeller Foundation and their Colombian counterparts in the development and consolidation of the concept of "jungle yellow fever," as distinguished from the known urban form of yellow fever. We explore the research responses to a variety of disease outbreaks in Colombia in the context of the Rockefeller campaigns against yellow fever, from the time of Roberto Franco's initial description of "yellow fever of the forests" in 1907 until the consolidation of the concept of "jungle yellow fever" by Fred Soper in 1938.