The article analyzes the creation, acceptance, and abandonment of a means of fighting malaria known as the Pinotti method: kitchen salt mixed with chloroquine. The early 1950s brainchild of Brazilian malariologist Mario Pinotti, this method was intended to both prevent and treat malaria. Chloroquine-medicated salt was tested during the first half of that decade and used in Brazil from 1959 through 1961 as part of a malaria eradication campaign coordinated by the World Health Organization. The method won recognition on the world health stage, drew criticism, and underwent testing in other countries until the mid-1960s. We argue that Brazil's abandonment of the method was primarily due to the political decline of its creator, which began in 1960.
malaria; Mario Pinotti (1894-1972); eradication; medicated salt; World Health Organization