“Um depósito de agonia”: assistência aos tuberculosos na Santa Casa de Misericórdia da Paraíba (1906-1942)

Abstract

This article analyzes the conditions of medical assistance provided to tuberculosis patients by the Holy House of Mercy of Paraíba (SCMPB), more specifically at the Sant’Anna Hospital, which during the first half of the 20th century welcomed indigent consumptive patients who sought that institution. Although one of the commitments of the Brotherhood of Holy House of Mercy was to “treat the sick”, the Ombudsman's Reports claimed that assisting tuberculosis patients was not an obligation of the Pious Institution. We argue that this refusal was due to alleged economic issues on the part of the SCMPB, since tuberculosis, as it is a chronic disease and, at the time, incurable, and because the majority of patients are helpless and indigent, its maintenance contributed to a supposedly very high cost for the Holy House. The analysis of the compelled documentation pointed to the absolute precariousness of the hygienic conditions in which these historical subjects – the poor consumptives – were assisted by the Holy House.