This article examines the complex frame of the institutionalization of microbiology in the Sanitary Service of São Paulo, an organization created in 1891, and the role this Service has played in the history of public health in Brazil. An articulation between its medical leaders and the state and other scientific and public health services, both in the country and abroad, was required as an essential strategy for the consolidation of their professions and the field of public health.
History; Public Health; São Paulo