By the mid-19th century, major urban and social reforms were underway in Latin America, focused on improving hygiene in cities. In this essay I will discuss the many reforms that were made to improve hygiene in Rio de Janeiro and how most were unsuccessful, who was really to blame for the hygiene problems, how the color of the servants made them made guilty of carrying disease and how their Starting in 1850, the disease began again in Rio de Janeiro after having been absent since 1686. In just three years, 6,500 people died of yellow fever. The fever disappeared for some time before returning again in 1890 where 14,944 people died. Between 1850 and 1901, 56,000 people died from yellow fever alone. In response to all the diseases, the Central Council of Public Hygiene was created and they had to act quickly to prevent further deaths. The task of the Central Public Hygiene Agency was to lay the underground pipes that would constitute the underground sewage system. This reform was supposed to eliminate "waste" in the streets and have cleaner water throughout the city. Instead, the disease worsened as the years passed. Of course, like most problems, someone was to blame and those who were blamed were the serfs who lived on the streets and worked in the houses. It was obvious that by living in filth they clearly spread the disease and when they worked in their servants' homes they passed the disease on to the children and the rest of the family. This ultimately led to the destruction of the cortiços. The cortiços were housing for the poor. They were themselves constituted as a small community and a... middle of paper... caressed the children. The life of the serfs was greatly affected during this period because they suddenly had to live a careful life in a dirty city without contracting a disease. In conclusion, the changes were made for the better, but after the examples mentioned above, this only made things worse. . It seemed that no matter what reforms were made, they always failed. Domestic servants in this period were more victims than carriers of disease. Rio de Janeiro was simply behind the times and couldn't handle the amount of people living there. The lower class or servants, who worked for the upper class, were at a distinct disadvantage due to the way they were forced to live. Works Cited Graham, Sandra Lauderdale. Home and Street: The Domestic World of Servants and Masters in 19th-Century Rio de Janeiro. (University of Texas Press, 1992)