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3 Foreign, National, and Local Influences on Malaria Control malaria is the worm that rots away the foundations of the Argentine nation. —dr. José tobías, “Contribución al estudio,” 1923 in 1923, hygienists from across Argentina convened at the national sanitary Conference in Buenos Aires. Contemplating nothing less than a complete overhaul of national public health administration, the delegates expounded on a multitude of sanitary problems and the grave threat they posed for the prospects of the nation. though it had successfully sequestered itself from notorious international epidemics, such as cholera, plague, and yellow fever, Argentina still faced diverse and interconnected menaces, including infectious and venereal diseases, along with the social vices that amplified their damaging effects.the delegates widely agreed that unsanitary conditions not only tore apart the fabric of society, but also undermined the strength and vigor of the Argentine race and the basic biological foundations of the nation itself. only a reorganization of the national department of hygiene (dnh), based on centralizing authority over public health in the national state, could provide the coordination, efficiency, and expertise necessary to prevent the deterioration of the race. the proposed restructuring of the dnh went nowhere until the populist government of Juan d. Perón brought these reforms to fruition in the 1940s.yet the proceedings of the 1923 conference offer a window into the ideology of the country’s leading hygienists: their paternalism, their prioritizing of public health above almost all other concerns, their unabashed nationalism ,and their fascination with racial improvement.their ideology also colored the campaign against malaria, which was a principal concern for the hygienists at the 1923 conference,no matter their regional background.representatives from the northwestern provinces, such as the salteño José tob ías, author of this chapter’s epigraph, argued that malaria “threaten[ed] to destroy the physical and intellectual vigor of an enormous mass of Argentines .” Jerónimo del Barco, former governor of Córdoba, contended that the “gradual degeneration of the race” caused by malaria undermined the na- 76 / Chapter 3 tion’s military strength. Antonio Barbieri, the Porteño who headed the national malaria campaign,believed that he was leading more than just a public health effort:it was nothing less than a campaign to “invigorate the race.”1 this ominous rhetoric accompanied a flurry of activity in malaria control . in the 1920s the players involved in the program multiplied, introducing diverse visions, strategies, and techniques, with uneven degrees of coordination .While the national department of hygiene continued its leading role, other international, national, and local actors increasingly influenced the course of the campaign. to take just one eventful year, in 1925 a group of malaria service officers returned from five months abroad studying malariology in italy; the dnh entered into a cooperative agreement with the Us rockefeller foundation; and the department published the results of an epidemiological and entomological study of the northwest led the previous year by Peter mühlens, a German scientist.that same year, Charles nicolle, a french expert in tropical medicine,aided an Argentine researcher,salvador mazza, in the foundation of an institute of regional pathology in the northwest .All the while,politicians debated the merits of investing in malaria control and other public health projects, while bureaucrats and officials jockeyed for position to protect their administrative turf. this chapter examines the complex local,national,and international influences on Argentina’s malaria campaign during the 1920s.We cannot understand the motives behind malaria control and the choice of specific control policies without reference to the broader political, ideological, and institutional context of Argentina in that era.to this end,this chapter focuses more on how this context shaped malaria control policy and less on whether and how policies impacted malaria control in action, which is a problem i return to in chapter 4. the 1920s saw a gradual change in the ideological hegemony of the hygienists inspired by the Generation of 1880. first and foremost , discussions of malaria policy took place in a public health discourse that was increasingly nationalistic, racialized, and organicist, as the rhetoric of the 1923 national sanitary Conference demonstrates. At the same time, other varieties of nationalist thought influenced public health policy, generally , and malaria control, specifically.A resurgent regionalism challenged the purportedly elitist attitude and cosmopolitan outlook of Buenos Aires,offering an alternative vision of where the “true” heart of Argentine nationhood could be found:in the “creole” or hispanic interior provinces.reflecting this trend, elites of the...

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