Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Plague

2000; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 75; Issue: 9 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/00001888-200009000-00020

1938-808X

Albert Camus,

Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research

The Plague, written in 1948, is a fictional account of events that take place in a North African town that is stricken with a fatal contagion. Through the voice of his compassionate protagonist, Dr. Rieux, Camus speaks of the graphic horror of the plague and its effect on the population. In chapter 3, the doctors of the town, including Dr. Rieux, meet to discuss how to deal with this serious public health threat. The Prefect greeted them amiably enough, but one could see his nerves were on edge. "Let's make a start, gentlemen," he said. "Need I review the situation?" Richard thought that this wasn't necessary. He and his colleagues were acquainted with the facts. The only question was what measures should be adopted. "The question," old Castel cut in almost rudely, "is to know whether it's a plague or not." Two or three of the doctors present protested. The others seemed to hesitate. The Prefect gave a start and hurriedly glanced toward the door to make sure it had prevented this outrageous remark from being overheard in the corridor. Richard said that in his opinion the great thing was not to take an alarmist view. All that could be said at present was that we had to deal with a special type of fever, with inguinal complications; in medical science, as in daily life, it was unwise to jump to conclusions. Rieux, who had said nothing so far, was asked for his opinion. "We are dealing," he said, "with a fever of typhoidal nature, accompanied by vomiting and buboes. I have incised these buboes and had the pus analyzed; our laboratory analyst believes he has identified the plague bacillus. But I am bound to add that there are specific modifications that don't quite tally with the classical description of the plague bacillus." Richard pointed out that this justified a policy of wait-and-see; anyhow, it would be wise to await the statistical report on the series of analyses that had been going on for several days. "When a microbe," Rieux said, "after a short intermission can quadruple in three days' time the volume of the spleen, can swell the mesenteric ganglia to the size of an orange and give them the consistency of gruel, a policy of wait-and-see is, to say the least of it, unwise. The foci of infection are steadily extending. Judging by the rapidity with which the disease is spreading, it may well, unless we can stop it, kill off half the town before two months are out. That being so, it has small importance whether you call it plague or some rare kind of fever. The important thing is to prevent its killing off half the population of this town." Richard said it was a mistake to create too gloomy a picture, and, moreover, the disease hadn't been proved to be contagious; indeed, relatives of his patients, living under the same roof, had escaped it. "But others have died," Rieux observed. "And obviously contagion is never absolute; otherwise, you'd have a constant mathematical progression and the death-rate would rocket up catastrophically. It's not a question of painting too black a picture. It's a question of taking precautions." "It comes to this. We are to take the responsibility of acting as though the epidemic were plague." "It doesn't matter to me," Rieux said, "how you phrase it. My point is that we should not act as if there were no likelihood that half the population would be wiped out; for then it would be." Followed by scowls and protestations, Rieux left the committee room. Some minutes later, as he was driving down a back street redolent of fried fish and urine, a woman screaming in agony, her groin dripping blood, stretched out her arms toward him.