Sanitary Policies, Development and Community in Argentina during the 60’s

Abstract

Objective: This article aims at reviewing the ideas resulting from the medical knowledge related to the design and implementation of the health policies prevailing in Argentina during the 60’s. Methodology: Therefore, to the traditional preventive and curative role of epidemic and endemic diseases in the first half of the 20th century, the significance of re-evaluating the community was added. These ideas interacted, on the one side, in an international context marked by the increasing engagement with the international agencies in the purpose of stimulating the spaces for technical and/or financial cooperation among the capitalist countries in order to limit the impact of Communism in the region. On the other side, they interacted within the local context characterized by the proscription of Peronism and the establishment of authoritarian governments. Results: This double influence marked the health policies in general: the emphasis was put in aspects connected with the importance of planning, in connection with which statistics achieved protagonism as a legitimizing mechanism. At local level, knowledge related to prevention and health education sprang into action in numerous experiences of community development.