Archives of the Epidemic in Mexico
Learn about the memory of epidemics and pandemics in national history through the documents that the State Archives, Private and National Institutions safeguard.
Certificado de ayuda entregado a la señora Sara Zamora Monsalvo (1947) by Comité Nacional de Lucha Contra la TuberculosisArchivo General de la Nación - Mexico
TUBERCULOSIS
The present document that protects the Photographic and Documentary Collection Pérez Andalón is the certificate of aid issued in 1947 that was delivered to Mrs. Sara Zamora Monsalvo, in gratitude for her altruistic cooperation to continue with the works, works and efforts carried out by the National Committee for the Fight Against Tuberculosis in order to alleviate the extermination caused by the white plague.
It was in the eighteenth century when tuberculosis reached its peak, specifically in Western Europe. This growth was caused among other reasons by poor ventilation, poor nutrition, poor sanitation... At this time the disease also known as "white plague" became known.
Expedición Onchocercosis. Cuestionario y notas Tiltepec (1945)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
ONCHOCERCIASIS
Through the Na Bolom A Cultural Association.C. we can know the sanitary expedition carried out in the year of 1945, by the archaeologist Frans Blom and the anthropologist Gertrude Duby, coordinated by Manuel Gamio, with the intention of knowing the sites infected by onchocerciasis and trace the route of the disease.
The conditions of the exploration were difficult, in addition to being exposed to contracting the disease. The socio-cultural, economic and health effects of the affected populations were studied.
Expedición Onchocercosis. Cuestionario y notas Tiltepec (1945)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Onchocerciasis is a disease known as "river blindness", it is a parasitic disease caused by filariae and larvae, which eventually produces blindness. The expedition carried out by Frans Blom and Gertrude Duby, José Parra (doctor) and other companions, lasted 136 days, starting from Unión Juárez, Chiapas to Oaxaca, in which they raised questionnaires to the authorities of each town.
Gertrude combined photographs with interviews, Frans created maps of the territory, detailed roads, flora and fauna of the spaces visited. And an extensive record of archaeological sites, a topic of personal interest. Gertrude presented the report "On the migration of onchocerciasis". The publications and articles presented turned out to be controversial, exhibiting farms where there were totally infected populations and that were exploited for their condition. They also pointed to medical campaigns that had failed or never made it to the sites in need.
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
SPANISH FLU
The documents that the General Archive of the State of Oaxaca is pleased to present are the testimony of the activities corresponding to the administration of health services in the state and the efforts to manage them, in a coordinated manner, with the national government. We have selected some communications, notices, circulars, telegrams and reports of Public Health. Corresponding to the period from 1918 to 1922.
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre 002-F (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre 003-F (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre 005-F (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Dr. Guillermo Cerqueda, Sanitary Delegate of the Department of General Health of the Republic, sends the governor of the state of Oaxaca, Juan Jiménez Méndez, a copy of the public instructions that he prepared for the fight against Spanish influenza.
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Death registration certificate prepared by the Civil Judge of Huajacan de León, Rafael García R. Where the records of deaths from the Spanish influenza in the month of November 1918 are shown.
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre 006-F (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Acta de registro de defunciones a causa de la Influenza Española en el mes de noviembre 007-F (1918)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Petición del Jefe de Servicio de Higiene Rural y Medicina Social de Huetamo al Presidente Municipal (1943) by Dr. Eustolio HernándezArchivo General de la Nación - Mexico
SWINE FEVER
This document presented by the Municipal Historical Archive of Huetamo inscribes a petition dated 1943, by the head of the Rural Hygiene and Social Medicine service of Huetamo to the municipal president of the same place, where he points out the urgency of suspending the slaughter of the pig before the existence of a mortality; as well as the entry and exit of said animals. African swine fever was first described in 1921, the disease was characterized by high fever, hemorrhages and high mortality rates.
Circular de la Dirección General de Salubridad Pública del Estado de Guanajuato (1920) by Dirección General de Salubridad Pública del Estado de GuanajuatoArchivo General de la Nación - Mexico
BUBONIC PLAGUE
General Archive of the Municipality of San Miguel de Allende presents the measures that were taken a hundred years ago in this town to prevent the contagion and spread of the "bubonic plague" described by the authorities as a "terrible evil", and that hit two municipalities of the neighboring state of San Luis Potosí, Carbonera and Cerritos. By means of a circular from the General Directorate of Public Health of the State of Guanajuato, the municipal presidents were ordered to take the measures they deem appropriate, to prevent the spread of the disease and form the health boards.
Carta de H. T. Hughes al General Porfirio Díaz (1897)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
YELLOW FEVER
The Historical Collection of the Universidad Iberoamericana shows a Letter from H. T. Hughes to General Porfirio Díaz in which he requests that the steamers that arrive without the disease [cholera] not be stopped, since the determination of the port of Tampico is such that if carried out or continued in any other port of the Mexican Republic, it will completely paralyze all traffic and cause harm to all commerce and the public.
Carta de H. T. Hughes al General Porfirio Díaz (1897)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Mexico at the end of the 19th century had a rapid economic expansion due to the stabilization of a legal framework and a political order, the modernization of transportation and the opening of international markets. It is believed that the cholera epidemics reached the country with the activation of trade and that they entered through the port of Tampico.
Among the records of the passage of the disease through Mexican soil, serious outbreaks in 1833 and 1850 are recorded. The various affected countries took security measures to prevent the spread of the disease. By 1892, cholera reappeared in New York, but thanks to the installation of a health laboratory, it managed to stay at bay.
Carta de Juan Aguilera Crespo al General Porfirio Díaz (1892)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Letter from Juan Aguilera Crespo to General Porfirio Díaz in which he requests an encouragement for Dr. Federico Pedrera, who invented a specific one to counteract the vomiting disease in Yucatán in 1883, which now causes victims in the port of Veracruz.
It also reports on the certificates of various doctors and military that endorse Dr. Pedrera and on the success of his specific in the Pacific Coast.
Carta de Juan Aguilera Crespo al General Porfirio Díaz (1892)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
Yellow fever or black vomit represented a public health problem since the days of the viceroyalty in New Spain due to frequent epidemics and its high mortality rate. Thanks to the discoveries of Luis Pasteur during the second half of the 19th century, there were important medical advances.
Carta de Juan Aguilera Crespo al General Porfirio Díaz (1892)Archivo General de la Nación - Mexico
In Mexico, Dr. Federico Pedrera was one of the doctors dedicated to the search for a germ or microbe that caused vomiting and its cure. As a result of his research and positive experiences, in 1883, Specific of Dr. Pedrera was published to cure yellow fever or dark vomit in the Gamboa Guzmán printing press in Mérida.
Reporte de casos de “Fiebre Amarilla” en Payo Obispo, Quintana Roo (1921) by Delegado Sanitario de Quintana RooArchivo General de la Nación - Mexico
YELLOW FEVER
In the document selected by the General Archive of the State of Quintana Roo, it exposes in an official letter addressed to the president of the Superior Council of Public Health, dated September 2, 1921 in Payo Obispo, T. de Q. Roo, the measures adopted by the Governor of the Territory to prevent the spread of yellow fever.
This type of outbreak occurred in the context of the national health situation, in which, as part of the measures of the first post-revolutionary governments to deal with the health emergency in 1921, the government of Álvaro Obregón decreed, on January 19, the creation of a "Special Commission for the campaign against Yellow Fever", who began working in technical and economic collaboration at the Rockefeller Foundation's Office of International Hygiene.
Reporte de casos de “Fiebre Amarilla” en Payo Obispo, Quintana Roo (1921) by Delegado Sanitario de Quintana RooArchivo General de la Nación - Mexico
In October of the same year, the first Mexican Yellow Fever Convention was held in Mexico and it was decided to divide the national territory into six endemic areas, covering Tampico, Tuxpan and Veracruz; Tehuantepec; Yucatan and Campeche; Colima; Manzanillo and Mazatlan; Culiacán, including the states of Sinaloa, Sonora and Nayarit. Laboratories were established in Tampico, Veracruz and Mérida, while another in Mexico City, in charge of Dr. Tomás G. Perrín, was in charge of the work of Colima and Manzanillo.
Acervo fotográfico y documental Pérez Andalón: Certificado de Ayuda (Emisión 1947 Acervo).
Asociación Cultural Na Bolom A.C.: ANB 1.08, titulada “Expedición Onchocercosis. Cuestionario y notas Tiltepec, Oaxaca". https://www.nabolom.org/
Archivo General del Estado de Oaxaca: AGEO, Gobierno, Estadística, Informes, 1918, Caja 2999, Exp. 1. https://www.oaxaca.gob.mx/ageo/
Archivo Histórico Municipal de Huetamo: Fondo: H. Ayuntamiento de Huetamo Michoacán Sección: Presidencia Municipal Serie: Varios Años: 1940-1949 Caja: 11 Carpeta: Salubridad Pública Exp. No. 35 Año: 1943.
https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=archivo&table_id=691
Archivo General del Municipio de San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato: Fondo: Gobernación Sección: Salubridad Pública Serie: Correspondencia Cronología: 1920
https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?table=archivo&table_id=393
Acervo Histórico de la Universidad Iberoamericana: Biblioteca Francisco Xavier Clavigero | Área de Acervos Históricos Colección Porfirio Díaz C.P.D. Leg. 017 Caja. 029 Documentos. 014061-014062 Fecha: Nueva York, E.U., 17 de septiembre de 1892.
https://www.bib.ibero.mx/site/index.php/acervos-historicos-2/
Archivo General del Estado de Quintana Roo: FONDO: SALUBRIDAD PÚBLICA SECCIÓN: EPIDEMIOLOGÍA CAJA: 21 (localización en archivo histórico del AGQROO: caja única Secretaría de Salubridad y Asistencia). EXPEDIENTE : 15 (número de expediente en AGQROO 26). FOJAS: 39 (fojas seleccionadas 12 y 13). FECHA: 1921 ASUNTO: Reporte de casos de “Fiebre Amarilla” en Payo Obispo, Quintana Roo. https://qroo.gob.mx/segob/age
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