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https://www.arca.fiocruz.br/handle/icict/24601
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ArtigoDireito Autoral
Acesso restrito
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- COC - Artigos de Periódicos [1102]
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IMPERFECT TOOLS FOR A DIFFICULT JOB: COLPOSCOPY, ‘COLPOCYTOLOGY’ AND SCREENING FOR CERVICAL CANCER IN BRAZIL
Colposcopia
Política de saúde
Prática médica
Esfregaço de papanicolau
Autor(es)
Afiliação
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Casa de Oswaldo Cruz. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
Centre de Recherche Medicine, Science Santé et Societé (CERMES), Paris, France.
Centre de Recherche Medicine, Science Santé et Societé (CERMES), Paris, France.
Resumo em Inglês
The quasi-totality of social scientists who studied screening for cervical tumours identified such
screening with a single method: the Pap smear (exfoliative cytology). This article explains that
this method was not valid everywhere. The history of screening for cervical cancer in Brazil
displays an alternative method for detecting cervical malignancies: a direct observation of the
cervix with a specific instrument – the colposcope. The development of this method in Brazil
in the 1940s and 1950s reflected a complex mixture of professional interests, government
policies, and regional, local and charitable initiatives. While the use of colposcopy for cervical
tumour screening was phased out in the 1970s and 1980s, the long lifespan and widespread
diffusion of this method illuminates the irreducible contingency of specific developments in
science, technology and medicine. Seen from the vantage point of Brazil, the Western model
for preventing cervical malignancies no longer appears self-evident. Alternative choices might
have led to the development of different material and visual cultures of medicine, stimulated
different patterns of medical specialization and division of medical labour, produced different
links between malignancies, women, gynaecologists, epidemiologists and public health experts,
and shaped different health policies.
Palavras-chave
Câncer de colo do úteroColposcopia
Política de saúde
Prática médica
Esfregaço de papanicolau
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