Vaccine Revolt

The Vaccine Revolt or Vaccine Rebellion (Portuguese: Revolta da Vacina) was a period of civil disorder which occurred in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (10–16 November 1904).

At the beginning of the 20th century the city of Rio de Janeiro, then capital of Brazil, although noted for beautiful palaces and mansions, also suffered from serious inadequacies in infrastructure, including insufficient water and sewer systems, irregular garbage collection, and densely populated tenements.

In this environment many illnesses proliferated, including tuberculosis, measles, typhus and leprosy. From time to time epidemics of yellow fever, smallpox and bubonic plague occurred. Between 1897 and 1906, 4,000 European immigrants died in Rio de Janeiro from yellow fever alone.

Beginning in 1902, president Rodrigues Alves determined to improve hygiene and modernize the city. He gave plenary powers to the city’s mayor Pereira Passos and to Director General of Public Health Dr. Oswaldo Cruz to execute sweeping sanitary improvements.

The mayor initiated an extensive urban reform program, which was popularly termed the bota abaixo ("throwing down or out"), in reference to the demolition of older buildings and tenement houses, with subsequent conversion of the land to stately avenues, gardens, and upscale homes and businesses. Thousands of poor people were displaced to peripheral neighborhoods.

Dr. Cruz created the Brigadas Mata Mosquitos (Mosquito-Killing Brigades), groups of sanitary service workers who entered homes in order to exterminate the mosquitoes which transmitted yellow fever. The campaign also worked to exterminate rats which transmitted bubonic plague, distributing rat poison and requiring proper handling, storage, and collection of garbage.

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