# Síntomas del Paludismo (1943), a malaria poster for Nicaragua printed by the GPO

Síntomas del Paludismo is a 1943 Spanish-language malaria poster of Nicaragua's Servicio Cooperativo Interamericano de Salud Pública, signed Augusto and printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office. Small drawings run from chills and fever to a funeral and the words "RESULTADO MUERTE" (NAID 44268213).

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      Síntomas del Paludismo [Symptoms of Malaria]

      Síntomas del Paludismo (1943), a malaria poster for Nicaragua printed by the GPO
      A 1943 Nicaraguan malaria poster, signed Augusto and printed by the U.S. GPO, walks from chills and fever to a coffin: "Resultado muerte." NAID 44268213.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Fear appeal
      Date1943Made byServicio Cooperativo Interamericano de Salud Pública, Dirección General de Sanidad, Nicaragua (printed by U.S. Government Printing Office); artist AugustoMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 44268213; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters , retrieved October 3, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work, NARA RG 44 OWI series) Servicio Cooperativo Interamericano de Salud Pública, Nicaragua; printed by U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44 (NAID 44268213, 44-PF-854d).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  Síntomas del Paludismo is a 1943 Spanish-language malaria poster of Nicaragua's Servicio Cooperativo Interamericano de Salud Pública, signed Augusto and printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office. Small drawings run from chills and fever to a funeral and the words "RESULTADO MUERTE" (NAID 44268213).

## Symptoms in a row

The sheet reads like a path. Small drawings go with the symptoms: a man shivering, a man gone thin, two women embracing, a child with a swollen belly outside a hut, a man turning away food. The path ends in a funeral procession carrying a coffin, next to one word in heavy type.

SERVICIO COOPERATIVO INTER-

AMERICANO DE SALUD PUBLICA.

DIRECCION GENERAL DE SANIDAD.

NICARAGUA. A.C.

SÍNTOMAS

DEL PALUDISMO

frio y calentura. pérdida de peso. debilidad y anemia. pérdida del apetito y vómitos. hinchazón del bazo

RESULTADO MUERTE

[signature:] AUGUSTO 1943

☆ U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O—538317

Original Spanish as transcribed in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked; the symptom lines are run together here. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 44268213, local id 44-PF-854d, Record Group 44.

The archive's English translation, which it labels a machine translation not verified by a fluent reader, renders the list as chills and fever, loss of weight, weakness and anemia, loss of appetite and vomiting, and swelling of the spleen, ending "RESULT: DEATH." Treat that wording as unverified.

## Who made it

The heading names a joint body, the Servicio Cooperativo Interamericano de Salud Pública, with Nicaragua's Dirección General de Sanidad. The artist signed "Augusto 1943." The imprint is that of the U.S. Government Printing Office, and the archive files the sheet as a U.S. state product aimed at a foreign public, held in the National Archives' World War II Foreign Posters series. The record does not give the artist's full name, the print run, or where in Nicaragua it was posted.

## From fever to coffin

The archive tags fear appeal, and the design earns the tag: every symptom leads, in one reading line, to the coffin. The sheet does not soften the end point. It also does not offer the cure or tell the reader what to do; a viewer who recognizes the symptoms is left with the warning.

Fear in a health poster is not the same as fear in a war poster. The symptoms listed are specific, and the threat comes from a disease rather than from a neighbor or a foreign people. The more pointed question is about voice. The sheet speaks as a Nicaraguan health service, while the imprint is the U.S. Government Printing Office's. Both facts are on the page, which is to its credit, but the cooperative arrangement behind them is not explained by the record.

A U.S. Public Health Service poster for home use from the same year is Keep Out Malaria Mosquitoes. Later health posters abroad with an American hand in them include the U.S. Information Agency's Alliance for Progress public health sheet (Mexico City, 1964) and Destroy the Disease Carriers (Jordan, 1957), which also speaks in a joint voice, the Jordanian Ministry of Health's with the American Operations Mission's.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Síntomas del Paludismo [Symptoms of Malaria], 1943. Servicio Cooperativo Interamericano de Salud Pública, Dirección General de Sanidad, Nicaragua; printed by the U.S. Government Printing Office; artist Augusto. English translation as given by the archive, labeled machine translation, not verified.

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, NAID 44268213, local id 44-PF-854d, catalog record, retrieved by the archive 3 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work, NARA RG 44 OWI series).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/us-health-sintomas-del-paludismo-nicaragua-1943/