Mário Pinotti

Mario Pinotti (21 January 1894 – 3 March 1972) was a Brazilian medic and sanitarist. As director of the Brazilian National Malaria Service, Maio Pinotti pioneered chloroquinized salt in Brazil during the early 1950s in order to eradicate malaria.

Biography

Mario Pinotti was born in Brotas, São Paulo state, in 1894 to Rafael Vitório Pinotti and Precilda Bossel Pinotti. Mario attended the pharmacy school at Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, and graduated in 1918 at the National College of Medicine, at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. After graduation, Mario Pinotti was appointed as rural sanitary inspector of the National Department of Public Health in 1919. In 1922 he assumed as mayor of Nova Iguaçu, Rio de Janeiro. Back to the National Health Department, Pinotti worked in the campaign against yellow fever from 1928 to 1931. Mario Pinotti married Margarida Pinotti, and they had two children. The São Paulo State Antimalarial Service, the Special Public Health Service in the Amazon (SESP) and the National Malaria Service (SNM) were the three Brazilian organizations involved in malaria control. The SNM was created in 1941 and was run by Mario Pinotti starting in 1942.

In the 1960s, the use of chloroquinized salt became to fade due to concern that targeted populations were unevenly protected. In Amazonas State, chloroquinized salt distribution was no longer required, but it was distributed until supplies ran out. Still, chloroquinized salt continued to be used in French Guiana (1967-1971), Guyana (1961-1965) and Suriname (1966-1972).

Publications

O problema da malária transmitida por Kerteszia no sul do Brasil Grande programa de erradicação da malária no Brasil, 1951 Campanha contra a doença de Chagas, 1956 Vida e morte do brasileiro, 1959