[The tropics, microbes, and vectors].

The article analyzes how Argentinean and Brazilian researchers designed their tropical disease research programs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Even though Brazilian and Argentinean hygiene were direct descendants of Pasteurian programs and principles, Brazil addressed its public health problems through a new research agenda that embraced bacteriology, parasitology, and a concern with vectors. Argentina, on the other hand, disregarded the problems caused by tropical disease, insisting instead on reducing all of its health issues to those that could be approached through a paradigm embracing microbiology studies and the "aerista" strategies typical of classic hygiene.