Belisário Penna

Belisário Penna
Born(1868-11-29)November 29, 1868
Barbacena, Minas Gerais, Brazil
DiedNovember 4, 1939(1939-11-04) (aged 70)
Engenheiro Paulo de Frontin, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
CitizenshipBrazilian
EducationFaculty of Medicine of Bahia
OccupationsPhysician, scientist, politician, civil server

Belisário Augusto de Oliveira Penna (November 29, 1868 – November 4, 1939) was a Brazilian physician and sanitarist. An advocate of sanitary reform and modernization in Brazil, he served as Minister of Education and Public Health in two occasions. Penna is one of the patrons of the Brazilian Academy of Medicine.

Biography

Born in Barbacena to a family of wealthy landowners, the son of the Viscount of Carandaí (pt)[1], Penna attended the historic Colégio Abílio (pt), which may have inspired the novel O Ateneu.[2] He enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro before transferring to the Faculty of Medicine of Bahia, from which he graduated.[3]

Following his return to Barbacena, Penna began his clinical practice and was elected as a municipal councilor. Facing financial hardships, he moved to Rio de Janeiro to work at the Diretoria Geral de Saúde Pública, where he was tasked with combating smallpox. In 1905, he worked as a Rural Sanitation inspector, and studied the larval development of Yellow-Fever-transmitting mosquitoes, proposing sanitary measures for eliminating transmission foci that were widely and succesfuly employed.[4]

In 1906, Penna was dispatched to the north of Minas Gerais with Carlos Chagas to help contain malaria outbreaks.[5] In 1910, Penna and Oswaldo Cruz embarked on a scientific expedition to Rondônia[5], examining the local sanitary conditions and developing a plan to control malaria. In 1912, he undertook another expedition, this time with Artur Neiva, travelling through Bahia, Pernambuco, Piauí, and Goiás, to collect data for the Oswaldo Cruz Institute.[6]

In 1914, Penna resumed his role as a sanitary inspector in Rio de Janeiro, and two years later he established in Vigário Geral the first rural sanitation post in Brazil.[7] In 1918, he published the book Saneamento do Brasil, a collection of news articles he had written. The same year, Penna assumed the direction of the Serviço de Profilaxia Rural, which helped create sanitary posts thoroughout Brazil.[8]

In 1924, Penna published the book Higiene para o Povo, a didatic work on public health.[9] In 1924, he supported the Revolution of 1924 against the government of Artur Bernardes, being subsequently arrested.[10] Following the Revolution of 1930, which Penna supported[11], he was appointed by Getúlio Vargas as Minister of Education and Public Health.

In 1935, Penna joined the Brazilian Integralist Action, becoming a militant.[12] After the Integralist Uprising, he moved to his farm in the countryside of Rio de Janeiro, where he spent his last days. He died in 1939 from cardiac arrest.

References

  1. ^ Wanderley, Andrea (2018-09-28). "O sanitarista Belisário Penna (1868-1939), um dos protagonistas da história da saúde pública no Brasil". Brasiliana Fotográfica (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  2. ^ Osinski, Dulce Regina Baggio; Souza, Luciana Aparecida Rodrigues de (2025). "O verbal e o visual: representações de educação em O Ateneu, de Raul Pompeia". História da Educação (in Portuguese). 29 e139906. doi:10.1590/2236-3459/139906. ISSN 1414-3518.
  3. ^ Castro-Santos, Luiz Antonio de; Figueiredo, Regina Érika Domingos de (2012). "Belisário Penna, combatente: um capítulo da história da saúde pública brasileira". Saúde e Sociedade (in Portuguese). 21: 848–857. doi:10.1590/S0104-12902012000400005. ISSN 0104-1290.
  4. ^ Thielen, Eduardo Vilela; Santos, Ricardo Augusto dos (2002). "Belisário Penna: notas fotobiográficas". História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos (in Portuguese). 9: 387–404. doi:10.1590/S0104-59702002000200008. ISSN 0104-5970.
  5. ^ a b Oswaldo Cruz, Fundação (1992). A ciência a caminho da roça (PDF). p. 134.
  6. ^ Lima, Nísia Trindade (2009). "Uma brasiliana médica: o Brasil Central na expedição científica de Arthur Neiva e Belisário Penna e na viagem ao Tocantins de Julio Paternostro". História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos (in Portuguese). 16: 229–248. doi:10.1590/S0104-59702009000500011. ISSN 0104-5970.
  7. ^ Augusto Dos Santos, Ricardo (2012). "O Plano de Educação Higiênica de Belisário Penna: 1900-1930". Dynamis. 32 (1): 45–68. doi:10.4321/S0211-95362012000100003. hdl:10481/77422. ISSN 0211-9536. Archived from the original on 2024-04-15.
  8. ^ "Biblioteca Virtual Oswaldo Cruz - Belisário Pena". oswaldocruz.fiocruz.br. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  9. ^ Carvalho, Leonardo Dallacqua de (2021). "Higiene Brasileira: As Lições De Belisário Penna Para as Escolas Normais". História da Educação. 25.
  10. ^ Kropf, Simone Petraglia. "Entre Dúvidas e Glórias: a tripanossomíase americana no foco da ciência e da política (1914-1918)" (PDF). Scielo.
  11. ^ Carvalho, Leonardo Dallacqua de (2021). "Por uma "consciência sanitária" revolucionária: a participação do médico Belisário Penna em outubro de 1930". Topoi (Rio de Janeiro) (in Portuguese). 22: 875–896. doi:10.1590/2237-101X02204814. ISSN 1518-3319.
  12. ^ de Carvalho, Leonardo Dellacqua (2025). O saneador do Brasil: saúde pública, política e integralismo na trajetória de Belisário Penna (1868- 1939). HUCITEC.
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