Instituto Oswaldo Cruz

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Instituto Oswaldo Cruz is a scientific institution for research and development in biomedical sciences located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was founded by Dr. Oswaldo Cruz, a noted physician and epidemiologist.

The Federal Serum Therapy Institute was established with the objective of developing serum and vaccines against the bubonic plague. The institute’s activities, however, changed from simple production into research and experimental medicine, especially after Oswaldo Cruz assumed its leadership in 1902. From there on, the institute became the base for memorable sanitation campaigns in an age of outbreaks and epidemics of the bubonic plague, yellow fever, and smallpox. The Institute, however, was not confined to Rio de Janeiro and, on the contrary, collaborated in the occupation of the country’s inlands through scientific expeditions, aiding in the development of the country. When Oswaldo Cruz died, in 1917, the Institute, which by then already bore his name, was nationally consolidated through important scientific achievements, such as Carlos Chagas’ description of the complete cycle of the American trypanosomiasis including the clinical pattern of the disease.