Salud pública en tiempos de epidemia: el caso de la escarlatina en Chile, 1832 y 1842

Abstract

This article aims to analyze how, from two epidemics of scarlet fever that affected Chile in 1832 and 1842, the first health policies of the period were designed. The main objective is to analyze the sanitary measures that were put in place to face them. The study framework is based on sanitary measures designed in this period, all of which, beyond their implementation, allowed for health issues to be debated in the public sphere and to defining the role of the government on this. My hypothesis is that the consensus between medical and political authorities about the need to include health issues in the governmental functions in order to take effective measures to restrain poor sanitary conditions, was the most important achievement of the period in terms of public health. This made it possible to place health issues in the realm of political debate by means of the press.