Alguns aspectos das campanhas antituberculosas em Portugal : os congressos da Liga Nacional Contra a Tuberculose (1901-1907)

Abstract

Tuberculosis was amongst the diseases that most afflicted the Portuguese population in the late 19th century and first half of the 20th. Producing thousands of victims annually, given the impotence of medical knowledge and health authorities, the numbers worsened with unhygienic folk practices and customs and increasing urban population and industry. Several physicians rose against the social problem of tuberculosis with the desire to disseminate concepts of hygiene among the population, in actions that gradually took the form of campaigns conducted through national congresses on tuberculosis (1901, 1902, 1904 and 1907). The purpose of this article is not to track in detail the preparation, implementation and acceptance of the congresses of the National League against Tuberculosis, but rather to analyze the content and theme of the papers presented and their evolution, in order to understand the main medical / health concerns, based on the abstracts of such papers published in reputable journals of the time, such as Medicina Contemporânea and Medicina Moderna.