Bauru and its ulcer: the Brazilian Northwest railroad – NOB – and the city’s sanitary conditions from the look of the press (1916 and 1930)

Abstract

 In the context of the broader reflection on the theme “One health, new historical approaches after COVID-19”, we seek to bring a theme that illustrates the intimate relationship between human health, the animal world and the environment, which is part of the history of tropical medicine, and, in particular, the history of Leishmaniasis. This work aims to analyze the relationship between the construction of the railway line in the northwest region of the State of São Paulo, in Brazil (NOB) (starting in Bauru) and the sanitary conditions of the city, published in the generalist press of the State of São Paulo, O Bauru and Diario da Noroeste, between 1916 and 1930. The city was born around coffee production, which catapulted the construction of the Railway, starting in 1906. This railway line crossed half of the State of São Paulo, and the southern region of Mato Grosso, to the city of Corumbá on the Bolivian border with an approximate length of 1400 kilometers. The destruction of native forests allowing the proliferation of the straw mosquito – Lutzomia – started the proliferation of Leishmaniasis named after the NOB headquarters city, Bauru. The city’s precarious hygiene conditions between 1916 and 1930, despite the opening of hospitals, allowed the Bauru ulcer to spread, as well as other diseases, leading to a scenario of great concern in the context of public health in Brazil and the history of Leishmaniasis on a global scale.