ABSTRACT
A potpourri of epidemic and contagious diseases made Rio one of the deadliest cities in the world. This chapter examines the living conditions of the city's lower classes and consider how these factors contributed to the differential mortality experiences that distinguished Rio's racial groups. It highlights two of the more pernicious "diseases of poverty", tuberculosis and diarrhea/enteritis. Substandard housing and inadequate sanitation provided an ideal environment for infectious and contagious diseases. Early-twentieth-century newspapers were full of reports linking diseases like malaria, yellow fever, tuberculosis, and typhoid to inadequate housing. Poor nutrition paved the way for many of the diseases that preyed upon Rio's poor and working classes, and the epidemic and contagious diseases endemic to the city exacerbated the effects of poor nutrition, creating a vicious cycle of malnutrition and illness that frequently proved fatal. Substandard nutrition was responsible for debilitating deficiencies in vitamins, calcium, iron, and protein, and it caused high death rates from gastroenteritis and pneumonia.
