Biodiversidade e Saúde - IOC

Historically, research on biodiversity is one of the greatest lines of study developed in Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. The first publication of Oswaldo Cruz, in 1901, in the Brazil-Médico magazine, described the Anopheles lutzi in its ‘Contribution to the study of culicidae in Rio de Janeiro’. This milestone opened the study of Brazilian medical entomology. Researchers like Arthur Neiva, Carlos Chagas and Antônio Periassú signed after the foundations of a school of entomologists and acarologist that opened space for zoological studies in other areas such as protozoology, helminthology, malacology and microbiology, until today well structured at the Institute.

The relationship between Biodiversity, Health and Environment has traditionally been described in Public Health from three strands. The Biodiversity strand discusses the taxonomy and systematics focuses on wide knowledge of neotropical diversity. Biomedical strand, originated in classical Parasitology, involves the agent-host interaction of infectious diseases. The third strand comes from sanitation and discusses environmental issues from Environmental Engineering, with a focus on development of water infrastructure, sewage and garbage, factors that when absent or precarious contribute to illness and deaths in the population and loss of ecosystemic services provided by natural environments.

In Brazil, the growing social and economic development has caused notorious environmental damage. Interruption or minimization of this process is urgent and fundamental. Strategic actions in this regard cannot be made without the knowledge of our biodiversity, which is the starting point for whatever initiatives and should be viewed not only as an ethical premise, but also as an essential need for national welfare. The reduction or loss of Biodiversity causes several effects in cascade in the regulation of natural populations and ecological processes that lead to a risk increase of transmission and emergence of infectious and parasitic diseases in humans. Emergency processes of new diseases or intensification of other already controlled (reemergence) are largely related to changes in the landscape, resulting from human intervention or even natural processes. IOC and Fiocruz, in their centennial history, had already been working on these strands, both in Research and Teaching activities like the conservation of natural biodiversity through their collections and Biological Collections. However, the contemporaneousness has demanded greater specificity to the biodiversity theme and the interfaces of their relations, context in which was created the Graduate Program in Biodiversity and Health.

The Graduate Program in Biodiversity and Health of Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (IOC/Fiocruz) was created in 2010, being accredited with grade 5 by Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education - Capes) for the academic master and doctorate levels.

The program, which is the newest of the IOC, aims the training of masters and doctors capable of work in research, teaching and technical activities in studies on biodiversity and on problems of human health arising from natural environmental changes or due to anthropic action.

Coordination
Coordinator: Profª. Drª. Margareth Maria de Carvalho Queiroz CV
Assistant Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Ricardo Moratelli Mendonça da Rocha CV

Graduate Commission
Prof. Dr. Cleber Galvão CV
Prof. Dr. Felipe Arley Costa Pessoa CV
Profª. Drª. Rachel Ann Hauser Davis CV
Profª. Drª. Simone Chinicz Cohen CV
Profª. Drª. Viviane Zahner CV

Student representatives
Lorrane de Andrade Pereira (Titular)
Marina Lopes Duarte (Suplente)

Contacts 
Secretariat of the Graduate Program in Biodiversity and Health
Secretary: Luciana Mara
Phones: (21) 2562-1341
Email: pgbs@ioc.fiocruz.br

Academic Secretariat – Pavilhão Arthur Neiva
Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - IOC/Fiocruz 
Phone: (21) 2562-1201
Email: ensino@ioc.fiocruz.br
Avenida Brasil, 4365 - Manguinhos
Zip Code: 21040-360 - Rio de Janeiro - RJ