Aeroplanes without mosquitoes

PODGORNY, IRINA; GARCÍA, SUSANA V.

Congreso; SHOT Virtual Annual Meeting; 2021

Society for the History of Technology

c)In the early 1930s, the beginning of passenger air travel and regular airlines connected European and North American (air)ports with areas of Africa and South America, namely with endemic centres of various infectious diseases. At least, there were concerns about the mobility by plane of these diseases or their vectors. Air travel from most endemic centres was shorter than the incubation period for diseases such as yellow fever, a major concern when regular flights were established with the South American ports. In this presentation, we explore the ways in which the development of airplane technology and business stimulated the production of new sanitary regulations and research on the distribution and propagation of disease. The presentation focuses on the case of yellow fever and the health initiatives that sought to protect global health in the early days of mass aeromobility.