Instituto Butantan Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro. The Butantan Institute is the largest producer in Latin America (and one of the largest in the world) of immunobiologicals and biopharmaceuticals. In 2001 it produced ca. doses of vaccines and vials of hyperimmune sera. The institute is responsible for the production of 90% of the vaccines used in Brazil. The institute contains a venom farm where researchers milk around a thousand snakes for their venom which is used to make antivenoms and for medical research. The production units manufacture the following bioproducts: The Butantan Institute is one of the major touristic and educational attractions
Oswaldo Cruz construction of the Madeira-Mamoré railroad, which was interrupted due to the great number of deaths from malaria and yellow fever among the workers. In 1913, Cruz was elected a member of the Brazilian Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1915, due to health problems, he resigned from the directorship of the Oswaldo Cruz Institute and moved to Petrópolis, a small city in the mountains near Rio. On August 18, 1916, he was elected mayor of that city and outlined an extensive urbanization project he would not see implemented. In the morning of February 11, 1917, at 44 years of age,