RFK Visiting Professor in Latin American Studies Lecture - A History of AIDS in Brazil

Date: 

Wednesday, March 28, 2018, 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Location: 

CGIS South, S216, 1730 Cambridge Street

Speaker: Marcos Cueto, Robert F. Kennedy Visiting Professor, Department of History of Science, Harvard University; Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro

Introduction by Gabriela Soto Laveaga, Professor, Department of History of Science, Harvard University

AIDS appeared in Brazil in the 1980s when the country was experiencing a process of democratization, and the emergence of a network of health activists and health workers that fought for health as a right of all citizens. In 1996, Brazil’s government decided to provide free access to antiretrovirals to treat AIDS, mainly through generics; a decision challenged by private pharmaceutical companies and supported by the World Health Organization. This presentation will describe the Brazilian AIDS program during the years 1996 to 2008 and its interaction with global health organizations.

marcos_cuetoMarcos Cueto has a bachelor’s degree in History from the Universidad Católica de Perú and a master’s and PhD in History from Columbia University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Science, Medicine, and Society Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1990 to 1991. He is a professor with the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia and researcher with the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, Lima, where he served as general director from 2009 to 2011. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, and New York University and a fellow of the Guggenheim, Mellon, Tinker, Ford, and Rockefeller foundations. He has received prizes from the Latin American Studies Association and the History of Science Society. He currently serves as science co-editor for the journal História, Ciências, Saúde—Manguinhos and as specialized researcher at the Casa de Oswaldo Cruz, where he teaches classes in the history of health in Latin America and the history of international health. He is currently investigating the history of health in Latin America; global health; and the history of the World Health Organization and teaching a course at the Department of History of Science.

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