Beriberi in the Medical Reports of the Rondon Commission (1907-1915)

From its early years, the Mato Grosso-Amazon Telegraph Lines Commission (CLTEMTA) faced the health challenge of building a communication line in a tropical area plagued by endemic tropical diseases that had brought its construction to a standstill. In the reports of the Commission’s military doctors, beriberi stands out among the diseases mentioned. Its etiology, which is still poorly understood, was debated, with proponents of the infection theory and supporters of the so-called nutritional deficiency theory opposing each other. This impasse was reflected in the reports of the Commission’s doctors, especially in the way they interpreted cases of the disease on the line’s construction fronts. We selected two reports that discuss beriberi and its incidence in the Commission’s area of activity, by doctors Murillo de Campos (1913) and José Antônio Cajazeira (1916), which discuss the medical knowledge produced at the time about the disease.

Keywords:
Tropical Medicine; Nutritional Deficiency; Beriberi; Rondon Commission