ABSTRACT
This paper aims to look into the Brazilian health thinking between the decades of 1940 and 1960, with the major goal of reflecting on the relationship between health and development. Therefore, we discuss the current understanding that recognizes an open polarization process between the models of health consolidated on the 1st Vargas Government, notably the policies of the sanitarist-campaign and the Special Service Public Health (Sesp), in contrast to the developmental-sanitarism, organized mainly during the '50s onwards. The first one would be characterized by the belief that a high amount of health investments could solve health problems, improving growth and prosperity in addition. On the contrary, the developmental-sanitarism holds the idea that it would be essential to develop economically the nation as a precondition for improving the overall health status. In this attempt, we make use of Mário Magalhães formulations, a Brazilian sanitarist observed here as one of the most important names of the intellectual developmental school in health.
Keywords:
Developmental-sanitarism; History of public health; Sanitarist campaign; Mário Magalhães; Disease, poverty and development