Knowledge circulation in Argentina at the beginning of the 20th century. Etiological theories about the influenza pandemic 1918-1919

Abstract

When the Spanish flu entered Argentina, doctors and scientists in the country began their work to understand the origin of the disease and to find a preventive or curative method. One of the few centers that were dedicated to scientific research was the recently created National Bacteriological Institute, directed by Rudolf Kraus, who also headed the research on the etiological agent to develop a vaccine and a serum. His team relied on etiological studies that had been carried out in France, Spain, Great Britain and the United States. Based on them, research was carried out that allowed the generation of a serum and a vaccine based on the bacterial theory. However, the theory of a filterable virus was also circulating in international scientific circles, a hypothesis that was defended by a young physician who would write a thesis on the Spanish flu: José Tobías. Our article aims to analyze, on the one hand, the links generated, especially by Kraus and Penna, with European scientific institutions, the incorporation of the knowledge that arrived in the country and the practices they generated; and on the other hand, the knowledge Tobías used to disseminate the theory of the filterable virus. The study was elaborated through the analysis of state documentation, articles by doctors who studied the disease and the methods of cure, and chronicles of the press of the time.