Sanitary surveillance activities began in the 18th and 19th Centuries with the aim of avoiding the spread of disease in the world's newly emerging urban centers. The main purpose of this exclusive State responsibility was to keep watch over certain professional activities, to put a stop to charlatanism, and to inspect ships, cemeteries and places where food was on sale to the public.

At the end of the 19th century, sanitary surveillance was reorganized as new discoveries were made in the fields of bacteriology and therapeutics. The latter discoveries proved to be of major importance in the 1st and 2nd World Wars. After the 2nd World War, government administration was generally re-orientated, partly in response to the new period of economic growth. The responsibilities falling within the remit of sanitary surveillance were broadened in parallel with the building of Brazil's industrial structure. At the same time, central planning was given greater prominence and the Brazilian public sector took on a central role in enhanced efforts to develop the country.

From the 1980s onwards, growing participation by the population and of a range of organizations representing several different sectors of society in the political process began to develop and give weightier meaning to the concept of sanitary surveillance in Brazil. The result was that the State, with the full power of the Constitution behind it, became the repository of a wide range of sanitary surveillance responsibilities, looking after the rights of the consumer and assuming responsibility for providing better health conditions for the population.

Source: EDUARDO, Maria Bernadete de Paula and MIRANDA, Isaura S. de Miranda (collaborator). Saúde e Cidadania - Vigilância Sanitária. p. 3 Institute for Health Development - IDS, Medical-Hospital Care Nucleus - NAMH/FSP and Banco Itaú. São Paulo, 1998.