Ricardo Jorge e a saúde pública em Portugal : um apostolado sanitário

Abstract

Ricardo Jorge (1858-1939), a doctor and university professor, struggled (since1883), to give amplitude to the political space that public health occupied with an appeal to the State to establish medical strategies, in the name of modern sanitarianism. He was the organizer of the Municipal Services of Health and Hygiene in the city of Oporto since 1892. In the middle of 1899, an outbreak of bubonic plague occurred in Oporto, and the Health Council established a sanitation cordon around the city which caused the urban population to become angry due to the economic losses. This situation of animosity against him (he was insulted in the streets), forced him to leave to Lisbon, and he was given a position in the General Inspectorate of Public Health. In this context, he promoted the creation of the Central Institute of Hygiene (1899) and he took on the job of reforming the sanitary services, adapting them to the new scientific context, which led to the publication of the General Regulations of the Health and Public Aid Services (1901).